‘Fish and chips, please’: Xi Jinping wants to eat UK meal down the pub 'as man of the people’

President Xi Jinping wants to eat fish and chips in a country pub during his state visit to the UK as he thinks of himself as a “man of the people”, according to a British newspaper report.

 ‘The Chinese are desperate to order fish and chips. They’ve asked about it repeatedly,’ The Sunday Times quoted an unnamed source involved in the negotiations for the trip as saying.

The trip to the pub is expected to take place on Thursday when Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan visit British Prime Minister David Cameron’s country house, Chequers, outside London, the newspaper said.

“It’s all part of the president’s view of himself as a man of the people,” the source was quoted as saying.

It is not the first time the Chinese head of state has generated headlines by tucking into more humble fare.

He created a huge reaction on social media in China in 2013 when photographs of him were widely shared online eating at a popular steamed bun restaurant in Beijing.