Brits win over Chinese media
Royal family, prime minister roll out red carpet for President Xi
DAVID CAMERON
HONG KONG — When the Duchess of Cambridge wore a bright red dress to the state banquet honouring Chinese President Xi Jinping in London this week, China’s media went to town.
“Kate is wearing Chinese red to greet the President and his wife,” trumpeted a headline in the state-owned China Daily newspaper, a reference to Kate Middleton, wife of Prince William, second in line to his grandmother the Queen, who hosted the dinner.
Attention to such details, the pomp that’s marked Xi’s visit to Britain, and old-fashioned political pragmatism have helped revive a relationship in a way that seemed unlikely seven months ago.
Since Britain became the first major western country to join the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank in March, London has been steadily campaigning to become what Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne calls “China’s best partner in the West.” In contrast to the aftermath of British Prime Minister David Cameron’s meeting with the Dalai Lama in 2012, when China’s media portrayed Britain as a destination good only for tourism and education, it’s now touting a “golden era” of ties.
To some in Britain, the welcome given to Xi has left a bad taste at a time when thousands of British steelworkers are losing their jobs in the face of a market flooded by cheap Chinese imports. There are also fears about handing control of key industries to a superpower with global ambitions and a questionable human rights record.
Cameron hasn’t let political differences overshadow Xi’s time in the country.
“The more we trade together the more we have a stake in each other’s success and the more we understand each other and the more we can work together,” Cameron said this week.
The approach is paying off: Cameron said Xi’s trip will bring more than $46 billion US to the United Kingdom, including a Chinese company taking a stake in Hinkley Point, the world’s most expensive nuclear power station.
It wasn’t just the red dress that wowed Chinese media. It chronicled how three generations of royalty feted Xi, from the Queen’s tour of her personal collection of Chinese treasures to Prince William’s visit with Xi to see the car 007 drives in Spectre, the latest James Bond film.
Even the greeting by Prince Charles — whose relationship with China has been strained over his support for Tibet — at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel on the first morning of Xi’s visit was cited.
And protesters outside the venues where Xi appeared were kept closely controlled and outnumbered by pro-China demonstrators with T-shirts, dancing dragons and enormous Chinese flags. The Times newspaper published photographs of boxes the props were delivered in, sealed with “Diplomatic Bag” tape.
The more we trade together the more we have a stake in each other’s success.
BRITISH PRIME MINISTER