Britain welcomes Xi with pomp, but also worry

LONDON — China’s leader quoted William Shakespeare while Britain’s prime minister hailed a “golden age” between the two nations as a state visit festooned with regal pageantry was shadowed by concerns about national security, human rights and economic rivalry.

President Xi Jinping’s trip, years in the making, aimed to cement deals giving Britain a vast new pool of investment and China greater access to European markets. But as Xi was welcomed Tuesday as an honoured guest at Buckingham Palace and Parliament, critics warned that Britain was taking a risk by courting Beijing so aggressively.

“If you act like a panting puppy, the object of your attention is going to think they have got you on a leash,” James McGregor, a China expert at consulting firm APCO, told the BBC.

Some politicians, business people and union members are alarmed by growing Chinese investment in key sectors of the British economy, including nuclear power, and by Chinese competition in areas such as steel production.

Hundreds of U.K. steel layoffs were announced Tuesday, the first full day of Xi’s four-day visit, in a crisis that manufacturers blame on China selling steel at a loss on world markets to secure its own market share.

Prime Minister David Cameron is under pressure to confront Xi about the steel industry and human rights, but China’s leader was welcomed to London with lavish tradition and military pomp.

Xi was greeted with a 41gun artillery salute before being driven to Buckingham Palace — where he and his wife, Peng Liyuan, will stay — in a gilded carriage drawn by white horses.

Thousands lined the route to see Xi go by. Demonstrators from human rights and pro-Tibet groups jostled with a larger group of Xi well-wishers whose chants of “China! China!” drowned out their rivals’ shouts of “Shame!” and “Free Tibet!”

The crowds followed Xi to Parliament and back to Buckingham Palace, where he was to dine with Queen Elizabeth II, senior royals and dignitaries on turbot, venison and a dark chocolate, mango and lime dessert.

Dissident Chinese lawyer and activist Chen Guangcheng urged British leaders not to ignore human rights in favour of trade. He told the BBC that while trade is important, human rights are “like air and water, and no one can live without it.”

Xi made a short speech to both houses of Parliament, an honour that has been given to visiting politicians including U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Britain and China have a long and sometimes antagonistic history that includes the 19th-century Opium Wars and decades of Cold War tension. But Xi quoted Shakespeare — “What’s past is prologue” — and urged the two nations to “join hands and move forward” toward peace and development.

Britain’s Conservativeled government has been courting China, the world’s second-largest economy, for years. When Xi’s predecessor, Hu Jintao, paid a state visit to Britain in 2005, the countries announced $1.3 billion in trade deals. This time, Britain said the two nations would sign 30 billion pounds ($60 billion) in business agreements.

Treasury chief George Osborne has said he wants China to be Britain’s biggest trading partner after the United States by 2025.