Collaborative ventures between Chinese and foreign universities are well established. The Secretariat of Sino-Foreign Cooperative University Union lists 7 Foreign Joint Venture universities:
http://www.cuhk.edu.cn/en/node/1574 and there are other recently founded or separately classified ones such as ChengDu University of Technology Oxford Brookes University. The Ministry of Education has sent out slightly mixed messages by closing some partnerships whilst continuing to approve others. Most of these partnerships offer 2+2 programmes for studying in China and abroad, thereby reducing the cost to Chinese students of obtaining a foreign degree and providing international students taking a Chinese language degree to study in China. From a publishers perspective, these institutions provide an opportunity English-language textbook adoption that is obviously unavailable in normal Chinese universities.