China: This is your one chance to be partners

THE opportunity for Britain to forge a lucrative new relationship with China ‘may knock just once’, the country’s autocratic president warned last night.

Speaking at a lavish state banquet at Buckingham Palace, Xi Jinping urged Britain to seize the opportunity opened up by David Cameron’s new stance on China, which critics claim relegates human rights behind trade.

He told the Queen, the Prime Minister and other dignitaries: ‘As an old Chinese adage goes: “Opportunity may knock just once – grab it before it slips away.” In Britain, you also have a famous saying: “A wise man turns chance into good fortune”.’

In return, the Queen said the president’s visit to the UK ‘marks a milestone in this unprecedented year of co-operation and friendship’ between the two countries.

Earlier, Mr Xi used an address to both Houses of Parliament to say there was an opportunity for Britain and China to forge a ‘community of shared interests’.

He said he had ‘good reason to believe that my visit will lift the friendly ties between our two countries to a new height’.

Prince Charles, a friend of Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, pointedly missed last night’s state banquet.

And Commons Speaker John Bercow also struck a rare discordant note on the carefully stage-managed visit, by using his welcome speech to the president to praise Burmese democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi.

Mr Bercow said China should aspire to be a ‘moral inspiration’, adding: ‘The world will be watching.’ Mr Xi brushed aside the criticism, saying China’s system of government was thousands of years older than Britain’s. His comments came as: Ministers and Buckingham Palace rolled out the red carpet for Mr Xi and his folk-singer wife Madame Peng at the start of a four-day state visit;

Mr Cameron was warned his strategy of acting like a ‘panting puppy’ towards Beijing would result in China putting him ‘on a leash’;

Downing Street unveiled plans to cut the cost of repeat-visit visas for Chinese tourists in the hope of attracting more highspending visitors;

Ministers were urged to ‘stand up for Britain’ as another 1,200 jobs in the UK steel industry were lost to cut-price Chinese competition. In Parliament, Mr Xi – who spoke in Mandarin – said China would take no lectures on governance from the West.

‘In China, the concept of putting people first and following the rule of law emerged in the ancient times,’ he said. China was ‘advancing the rule of law in an all-round way’ and developing a ‘socialist law-based governance with distinct Chinese features’.

China has come under sustained attack from human rights campaigners for its oppressive regime and brutal treatment of dissidents. But Mr Xi said the hard-line system was essential to the giant country’s stability.

Ministers hope this week’s state visit will secure more than £30 billion of trade deals with China, including huge investments in infrastructure projects.

Mr Cameron will hold talks with Mr Xi in Downing Street today, before holding further discussions at his country retreat Chequers tomorrow.

Downing Street insists that Mr Cameron will raise concerns about China’s human rights record in private. But Mr Xi will face no public criticism, as ministers focus on trade.

James McGregor, the American chairman of consultancy group APCO Worldwide’s Chinese operations, told the BBC: ‘If you act like a panting puppy, the object of your attention is going to think they have got you on a leash. China does not respect people that suck up. I think England is going to rue the day they did this.’ Dishonour on Britain – Page 14