The Australia-China Council Board works to enhance Australia's relationship with China. The Council was established by the Australian Government in 1978 to promote mutual understanding and foster people-to-people relations between Australia and China. The function of the Council is to make recommendations to the Australian Government through the Minister for Foreign Affairs on strengthening the Australia-China relationship in ways that support Australia's foreign and trade policy interests. The Councilís core activities are: 1. Providing policy advice to the government, and promoting bilateral relations among its network of stakeholders in the strategic priority areas of Economics and Trade, Society and Culture and Education and Science 2. Supporting and funding sustainable, long-term and high-impact projects that directly contribute to the strengthening of Australia-China relations and which support the Governmentís foreign and trade policy objectives 3. Supporting a network of 30 Australian Studies Centres located in leading Chinese metropolitan and regional universities through the Australian Studies in China program and the new Foundation for Australian Studies in China ñ a unique partnership between government, corporate and university sectors to advance Australian studies and in China.