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Xi Jinping's UK state visit
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Chinese President Xi Jinping. Photo: Reuters

‘Don’t interfere’: Chinese ambassador warns UK not to raise human rights when Xi Jinping visits

Liu Xiaoming suggests Chinese president’s trip could ‘herald a golden era for the relationship’.

China’s president, Xi Jinping, would feel offended if he is spoken to about Beijing’s human rights record during his five-day state visit to Britain next week, China’s ambassador to the UK has said.

Liu Xiaoming said Britain was fast becoming the leader in terms of western countries with the best relations with China, and said he expected Xi’s visit to “herald a golden era for the relationship”.

But Liu suggested the president would not respond well if reprimanded on human rights during his visit.

Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, has already promised to raise human rights issues next week, probably at a state banquet organised by the Queen. He has also been afforded a meeting with the Chinese leader at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday evening before the banquet.

Read more: Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Britain is a pragmatic step to building a new world order

No 10 will be desperate that Corbyn does not make his views known in a way that offends the Chinese or jeopardises much-needed Chinese investments in UK infrastructure, including its nuclear power plants.

Amnesty International has promised demonstrations in London in protest at China’s human rights record.

The group said: “The [Chinese] government has ratcheted up censorship of the internet, clamped down on civil society, increased its ideological controls over the media and academia, and launched several large-scale crackdowns on human rights defenders, lawyers, and activists.

“Most recently at least 245 lawyers and activists have been targeted in an unprecedented nationwide campaign over the last 100 days and at least 30 are ‘missing’ or still in police custody.”

Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron. Photo: Reuters

The Chinese ambassador told a press conference: “We don’t shy away from talking about human rights. What we are against is to use human rights to interfere with other countries’ internal affairs and to try to impose your own system on to others.”

Liu said British people would feel offended if China lectured Britain on human rights. “Likewise,” he added.

There were reports that the Prince of Wales, a friend of the Dalai Lama, would boycott the state banquet, although Clarence House said the prince would attend a lunch with the president and take tea with Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan.

David Cameron and George Osborne have done all they can to strengthen relations with Beijing since 2012, when diplomatic relations nosedived after the prime minister met the Dalai Lama in London. Both men will be spending huge amounts of time with the president, both in formal talks at Downing Street, then at Chequers and finally in Manchester.

Britain’s opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn. Photo: Reuters

Liu said Britain was “coming up from behind” after losing ground to other European countries in terms of relations with Beijing, and it is likely that British minister will pull out all the stops to impress the Chinese. The ambassador said the improvement in relations was down to the fact that “political mutual trust has been very much enhanced”.

Apart from human rights, the state visit may be overshadowed by sharp slowdown in Chinese growth – something that is likely have a major impact on the global economy and especially on the UK as the largest European investor in China and the largest destination in Europe for China’s outward investment.

Xi will spend four nights in Britain next week, staying at Buckingham Palace, giving a speech at Westminster, visiting the City of London UK-China business summit and flying to Manchester with Osborne to visit the National Graphene Institute as well as Manchester City football club.

Read more: British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn plans to press Xi Jinping on China’s human rights record

Xi is expected to use a speech at Guildhall next Wednesday to set out how he hopes to make London the global centre for offshore Chinese finance. Osborne has staked some of his political capital on the future of UK-China relations.

The last state visit from China was by President Hu Jintao in 2005. The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh paid a state visit to China in 1986.

“This is a major, historic opportunity for China-UK relations,” Liu said.

There will be a rush to agree a number of Chinese inward investment deals, notably involving infrastructure, energy, banking and other financial services. British investors especially in the construction sector are hoping for contracts as China’s urban population continues to grow. The urban population has roughly quadrupled in the last 35 years to more than 700 million and is projected to rise by a further 240 million over the next 35 years.

 

It has been argued that previous urbanisation and economic growth have been based on cheap labour, cheap land, robust export demand and little regard for the social and environmental consequences.

Asked whether this era might be interrupted if Britain opted to leave the European Union, Liu said he hoped not, but added: “We would like to see a strong Europe and a strong UK. I do hope the UK and Europe can work out an arrangement that suits both sides.”

In advance of the visit, the Great Britain China Centre announced the appointment of Peter Mandelson as its president, in succession to Geoffrey Howe who retired in July.

Lord Mandelson said in a statement: “Chinese President Xi Jinping arrives next week for a state visit to the UK which will mark a new high in UK-China relations. In Britain there is a broad cross-party consensus on the importance of expanding and deepening relations with China.”

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