David Cameron’s charm offensive towards China’s president, Xi Jinping, will intensify on Wednesday when he will offer cheap visas for Chinese tourists and welcome billions of pounds in business deals with Beijing, including in nuclear power.
The second day of Xi’s state visit will be taken up with trade summits and a bilateral meeting in Downing Street, with the two countries heralding £30bn of new business deals between them.
The biggest of these is likely to be an investment by China’s state nuclear power companies in two new plants being built by the French firm EDF at Hinkley Point in Somerset, rumoured to be worth in the region of £8bn per plant.
EDF will give an update on its new site as it prepares to make a final investment decision. Its chief executive, Vincent de Rivaz, said the proposal would boost employment and lead the “revitalisation of the new nuclear programme”.
George Osborne, the chancellor, has been seeking money from the Chinese for the HS2 rail line, advertising £11.8bn of contracts on his recent trip to the country, and for the so-called “Northern powerhouse”, an array of developments in the north of England.
While Xi is expected to bring promises of cash for UK infrastructure, Cameron will unveil a new visa regime giving Chinese tourists cheaper access for multiple visits than travellers from other countries.
He will cut the price of a two-year multiple-entry visa from £384 to £84, the current price of a six-month visa. The government is also looking at reducing the cost of a 10-year multiple-entry visa down to the same level, and extending mobile finger-printing services for visa applications from nine to 50 Chinese cities.
Downing Street said the special treatment for Chinese tourists was a sign that the UK was prioritising them as visitors. The scheme risks antagonising other countries, whose citizens will not be afforded the same privileges, but No 10 said it could be extended to travellers from other nations if successful.
The prime minister’s spokeswoman said reciprocal arrangements for UK travellers to China were under discussion but had not yet been agreed. The deal is intended to capitalise on Chinese tourists’ high spending, on average worth £2,680 per visit.
The scheme will be unveiled when Xi attends an event at Lancaster House with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to celebrate the creative industries, where displays will include items related to James Bond, Wallace and Gromit, the BBC’s Poldark adaptation and the Victoria & Albert Museum.
The president will visit Imperial College London with Osborne and the Duke of York, where closer research ties between the two countries will be announced.
Xi will then have a face-to-face meeting with Cameron, flanked by ministers, on issues from global security to poverty and climate change. Cameron will also engage Xi on the threat of terrorism and extremism, potentially seeking to persuade China to stop joining Russia in vetoing UN resolutions on Syria.
Cameron has promised to raise the plight of the UK steel industry, which is cutting thousands of jobs and mothballing plants, The cuts have been blamed on China dumping cut-price steel on the market.
Under pressure from Labour, the trade unions and industry, Cameron said he would mention the issue, but his spokeswoman would not reveal how strongly he was prepared to object to China’s behaviour.
She would only say he would raise the matter and discuss how the actions of one country can impact on another. Asked whether Cameron accepted that the Chinese were dumping steel, she said: “There are a number of challenges – competitive pricing from China is one of them.”
Following his meeting in Downing Street, Xi will attend a UK-China business summit at Mansion House, where the bulk of trade deals are expected to be announced. Later he will visit offices of the Chinese technology company Huawei and give a speech at a banquet held in his honour by the lord mayor of London at the Guildhall.
Before Xi’s trip, Cameron was repeatedly accused of being over-accommodating towards the Chinese for commercial reasons, while playing down human rights and security issues.
YouGov research for the Free Tibet group found 69% of those surveyed believe the Dalai Lama was right to say Cameron’s approach towards China was: “Money, money, money. That’s what this is about. Where is morality?”
