Downing Street’s intensifying flirtation with Beijing has yet to develop into a full-blown love affair, Chinese state media has warned, as president Xi Jinping touched down in London for his first state visit to Britain.
Officials in both London and Beijing have trumpeted Xi’s four-day trip, which starts on Tuesday, as the beginning of a “golden time” of relations through which Britain seeks to secure billions of pounds of Chinese investment and China hopes to boost its global reach.
“China attaches great importance to growing relations with the United Kingdom,” Xi said in a statement after landing at Heathrow airport with his wife, Peng Liyuan. “To deepen China-UK relationship is in the fundamental interests of both countries and peoples, and meets the trend of the times.”
In an editorial, the government-run China Daily newspaper predicted that Xi’s time in Britain would feature “many memorable highlights that will almost certainly grab the limelight back home”.
“But his visit is more about diplomatic realism. It is too early to talk about a UK-China ‘love story,’” the English-language newspaper added.
Xi's visit to unlock US$46 billion in commercial deals https://t.co/ctg96AvxoB pic.twitter.com/HYB0WFhcP5
— China Daily Asia (@ChinaDailyAsia) October 20, 2015
UK prime minister David Cameron and chancellor George Osborne have been waging an untiring campaign to reconquer Beijing’s affections since the prime minister’s 2012 meeting with the Dalai Lama led to a lengthy diplomatic freeze.
Those attempts at seduction included a controversial recent trip to China by Osborne, during which he visited Xinjiang, which activists say has the worst human rights record of any Chinese region.
For many that trip was a step too far.
“There are aspects of the charm offensive that I find very difficult to defend, most importantly George Osborne’s visit to Xinjiang,” said Michel Hockx, the director of the China Institute at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies.
“I think that is an area where no matter what your position is towards the Chinese government and no matter how much you want dialogue and mutual understanding, I think most people agree that what the Chinese government is doing in Xinjiang is just wrong and is a violation of people’s rights, religious freedom, religious expression and I don’t think George Osborne had any reason to go there.”
In recent weeks western diplomatic cables coming out of embassies in Beijing have been packed with “snide remarks” about British kowtowing, according to the Financial Times.
“What we are seeing is a case study in kowtow,” an influential retired senior US official said.
As Xi arrived in London on Monday night, Chinese media has swatted away such complaints.
“British society, like other western ones, holds a prejudice against the rising China. Yet this prejudice is not rooted in the UK’s core interests,” the Global Times tabloid argued in an editorial.
A front-page story in the Communist party’s official mouthpiece, the People’s Daily, claimed countries uncomfortable with China’s rise were attempting to “sabotage” its golden friendship with Britain.
“There are eight hours’ time difference and 8,000km separating Beijing and London. But the distance does not stop the people of both countries from reaching out with friendship,” it said.
Banners and flags are upheld in front of #BuckinghamPalace to welcome President #XiJinping Tue morning #XiUKVisit pic.twitter.com/i3GMXmy5VA
— People's Daily,China (@PDChina) October 20, 2015
Additional reporting by Luna Lin
