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Xi Jinping to make state visit to Britain as UK-China ties warm - Telegraph
Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, is poised to make a state visit to Britain later this year as relations between Downing Street and Beijing continue to thaw following a damaging diplomatic spat.
Hugo Swire, the Foreign Office minister, made the announcement on Tuesday during an appearance at a parliamentary inquiry into Hong Kong's political transition.
The Communist Party chief's visit – which would be the first of its kind in a decade – will follow a trip to China by Prince William, Mr Swire said.
The Duke of Cambridge is scheduled to make a three-day tour of Beijing and Shanghai in February.
"It is going to be an extraordinarily important year this year," Mr Swire told the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, whose members were barred from visiting Hong Kong last month in the wake of major street protests there.
British and Chinese officials did not immediately confirm the visit, although a Foreign Office spokesperson said: "We are discussing a possible visit with the Chinese".
The exact date and details of Xi Jinping's trip have yet to be announced but state visits normally entail a meeting with the Queen and a visit to parliament.
The last time a Chinese leader was granted such a visit was in November 2005 when the Queen donned a red dress to welcome Hu Jintao, the former Communist Party leader.
"It is a relationship of great consequence to us, full of potential and rich in opportunity for the people of both our countries," Her Majesty said at the time.
Relations between Britain and China soured dramatically in May 2012 after David Cameron met with the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, in London.
China reacted furiously, imposing an 18-month diplomatic freeze during which British ministers were snubbed and the Prime Minister was told he was not welcome in Beijing.
However, a truce was publicly declared in December 2013 when Mr Cameron toured China with a large business delegation.
Unprecedented pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong have threatened to derail the rapprochement in recent months, with activists urging the British government to speak out over Beijing's failure to grant the former colony full democracy.
However, Downing Street's reluctance to criticise Beijing's handling of the situation in Hong Kong had helped mend ties, said Chen Zhimin, an international relations specialist from Shanghai's Fudan University.
"I think Xi's reasons for visiting Britain may be partly due to the fact that Beijing was not too displeased by the British reaction to the Hong Kong Occupy Central issue," he said.
On Tuesday, Hugo Swire told the parliamentary hearing that Beijing's framework for Hong Kong's 2017 leadership election was "better than nothing".
Xi Jinping's visit represented a "major diplomatic coup" for David Cameron in an election year, claimed Cui Hongjian, an international relations expert from the China Institute of International Studies.
Shi Zhiqin, a resident scholar at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy in Beijing, said the visit would help bring "more understanding and respect and mend the frosty relationship after the Dalai Lama diplomatic freeze".
Relations between China and Britain were now "relatively stable," he added.
Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, is poised to make a state visit to Britain later this year as relations between Downing Street and Beijing continue to thaw following a damaging diplomatic spat.
Hugo Swire, the Foreign Office minister, made the announcement on Tuesday during an appearance at a parliamentary inquiry into Hong Kong's political transition.
The Communist Party chief's visit – which would be the first of its kind in a decade – will follow a trip to China by Prince William, Mr Swire said.
The Duke of Cambridge is scheduled to make a three-day tour of Beijing and Shanghai in February.
"It is going to be an extraordinarily important year this year," Mr Swire told the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, whose members were barred from visiting Hong Kong last month in the wake of major street protests there.
British and Chinese officials did not immediately confirm the visit, although a Foreign Office spokesperson said: "We are discussing a possible visit with the Chinese".
The exact date and details of Xi Jinping's trip have yet to be announced but state visits normally entail a meeting with the Queen and a visit to parliament.
The last time a Chinese leader was granted such a visit was in November 2005 when the Queen donned a red dress to welcome Hu Jintao, the former Communist Party leader.
"It is a relationship of great consequence to us, full of potential and rich in opportunity for the people of both our countries," Her Majesty said at the time.
Relations between Britain and China soured dramatically in May 2012 after David Cameron met with the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, in London.
China reacted furiously, imposing an 18-month diplomatic freeze during which British ministers were snubbed and the Prime Minister was told he was not welcome in Beijing.
However, a truce was publicly declared in December 2013 when Mr Cameron toured China with a large business delegation.
Unprecedented pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong have threatened to derail the rapprochement in recent months, with activists urging the British government to speak out over Beijing's failure to grant the former colony full democracy.
However, Downing Street's reluctance to criticise Beijing's handling of the situation in Hong Kong had helped mend ties, said Chen Zhimin, an international relations specialist from Shanghai's Fudan University.
"I think Xi's reasons for visiting Britain may be partly due to the fact that Beijing was not too displeased by the British reaction to the Hong Kong Occupy Central issue," he said.
On Tuesday, Hugo Swire told the parliamentary hearing that Beijing's framework for Hong Kong's 2017 leadership election was "better than nothing".
Xi Jinping's visit represented a "major diplomatic coup" for David Cameron in an election year, claimed Cui Hongjian, an international relations expert from the China Institute of International Studies.
Shi Zhiqin, a resident scholar at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy in Beijing, said the visit would help bring "more understanding and respect and mend the frosty relationship after the Dalai Lama diplomatic freeze".
Relations between China and Britain were now "relatively stable," he added.
