Expect bilateral deals and economic cooperation to feature in Xi Jinping's visit to Britain
Andrew Hammond says the UK knows getting on China's good side is in its own best economic interest
For all that Beijing may be the more powerful partner, it is currently grateful to the UK government for placing such faith in the country at a time of mounting concerns about its health
Indeed, the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne and leading potential successor to Prime Minister David Cameron has even pledged to make Britain "China's best partner in the West". This appears to be a concerted ambition for Osborne, personally, and has already ruffled the feathers of Washington following the UK's decision to become a founder member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), which is being championed by Beijing as a potential alternative to the World Bank.
An unnamed senior Obama administration official was widely quoted in March to be "wary about a trend toward constant [UK] accommodation of Beijing, which is not the best way to engage a rising power". Meanwhile, an official White House statement urged London to "use its voice [in the AIIB] to push for adoption of high standards".
The most important element of the "new" bilateral relationship is economics. And with the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in November too, the UK government's key message to the outside world appears to be that the country is "open for business". In so doing, Osborne and Cameron have ratcheted down, in public at least, their human rights concerns about China, especially after bilateral relations temporarily went into a deep freeze in 2012 when the prime minister met with the Dalai Lama.