It makes sense, international exploration is the way to go
The UK is small, but is a very big player in satellites and space exploration, but we don't have a manned program of our own or even within the ESA yet, but we have the scientists and engineers with the brainpower to do it IF we are funded.
China would be a great ally in space exploration, Britain getting in with China with unmanned exploration would be a good start, manned would be brilliant, I would love to see a joint UK/China manned Mars mission, I think China would benefit just as much from a partnership as we would.
Now I know China has some issues, but if you actually bother to look at the problems, its not usually Central government, its the local officials that are corrupt and try to stop central from knowing when they do bad things... Such as taking peoples land and not compensating them as they are required to by law, then having a private company kidnap & illegally imprison the person if they go to complain in Beijing, so Beijing never knows... They even execute corrupt officials, that is how serious they take it..
For every bad thing I hear, it is always some local official who is doing it to keep his numbers looking good or to earn money on the side...