The President of China, Xi Jinping and his wife, are ending a State Visit to the United Kingdom as guests, staying at Buckingham Palace as guests of The Queen.
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The statement said Xi’s visit, the first of a Chinese president to the United Kingdom in a decade, “provides a historic opportunity for UK-China relations”.
The Chinese foreign ministry read-out added that Cameron and Xi agreed “to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with the British side in reform and innovation, rule of law, fighting corruption”.
Conservative backbencher Fiona Bruce on Thursday demanded human rights and freedom of thought be placed at the “centre of this relationship”, while Tory former minister Tim Loughton asked why pro-Tibet protesters had not been allowed in view while Xi drove up the Mall.
Cameron is seeking to renegotiate Britain’s relationship with the European Union, which it joined in 1973, before holding a referendum on membership which he says will take place before the end of 2017.
Expectations of the total value went up rapidly during the visit, with Business Secretary Sajid Javid suggesting £25 billion, then Downing Street said £30 billion before Mr Cameron trumpeted the £40 billion figure at a business summit.
China, along with Russian Federation, blocked a series of Western resolutions at the United Nations against Bashar Assad’s brutal regime in Syria. The global community is keenly watching how China responds to the fight against Islamic State following Russian military intervention in the conflict-riven country.
PM David Cameron and Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit Manchester on the final day of Mr Xi’s state visit.
Xi had lunch with around 200 business and civic leaders at Manchester Town Hall, where hundreds of organised British-based Chinese greeted his arrival, waving Chinese flags handed out from cardboard boxes.
Britain will be China’s “partner of choice” in the West, Prime Minister David Cameron declared Wednesday, as China demonstrated its commitment by putting down a 6 billion-pound ($9.3 billion) stake in the U.K.’s first nuclear power plant since the 1980s.
“Every time she comes here she stands on the table and tells the story about her dad leaving her in the pub”, Cameron remarked, in front of a bemused President Xi.
Ramon Pacheco Pardo, a senior lecturer in worldwide relations with King’s College London, said it is time to lift the China-Britain relationship to a new level.
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Calling China and Britain “global powers” with shared interests in a stable and modern world, he said that as permanent members of the UN Security Council, the two countries should deepen cooperation across the globe.
