The Mall became a sea of red today as thousands of Chinese gathered to welcome President Xi Jinping on a state visit to the UK – and help drown out any dissenting voices.
The Chinese leader and his wife, Peng Liyuan, flew into Heathrow last night but their four-day visit officially got under way today with a day of engagements culminating in a state banquet at Buckingham Palace.
The government has ensured that all the stops are being pulled out for Mr Xi’s visit but the foreign secretary, rejecting allegations of kowtowing, insisted that Britain had its “eyes wide open” as it worked to create a new era of relations with China.
Chinese state flags fluttered over The Mall before a formal carriage procession with the Queen from Horse Guards Parade. Two small groups of protesters calling for action on human rights abuses and for a free Tibet were dwarfed by thousands bearing red flags and wearing “I love China” T-shirts.
Every time the protesters started to chant, the pro-China crowds obscured them with large flags and banged drums and cymbals to drown them out.
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Even before the first couple left their luxury London hotel, news emerged of another round of job cuts in Britain’s steel industry – under pressure from cheap Chinese imports. Tata Steel confirmed that it would be cutting almost 1,200 jobs at its plants in Scunthorpe and Scotland.
The job cuts will put pressure on David Cameron to raise the issue of steel “dumping” in his talks with Mr Xi but ministers are keen to keep the bigger picture in mind during a visit that officials say will result in more than £30 billion in trade and investment deals.
Critics have warned that Britain will “rue the day” it forged deeper ties with China and one China expert accused the government today of acting like a “panting puppy” in its relations with the country.
But Philip Hammond insisted that it was in the national interest to engage with China.
“I don’t think we are naive,” the foreign secretary told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “It’s very much in our national interest to engage with China but we do so with our eyes wide open.”
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Mr Hammond said the United States remained Britain’s closest ally but that did not stop the UK from working with China.
“I think we are developing a mature relationship with the Chinese,” he said. “They know that we are looking not just to China but to many other countries for infrastructure investment in the UK.”
Reacting to the latest job cuts in the steel industry, Mr Hammond said that “substantial tariffs” had been imposed on Chinese steel imports but insisted “we can’t simply build a wall around the UK”.
“If we had steel prices in the UK that were far out of line with the steel prices in other countries, our downstream industries would not be able to be competitive with the products they produce,” he said.
“So, we have got to get the balance right. Trying to protect our steel industry in a sensible way, which we are doing, but recognising that we operating in a global economy and we can’t simply build a wall around the UK.”
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Downing Street has rejected accusations of “kowtowing” to Beijing for the sake of commercial deals, insisting that no subject will be off the table in talks during the state visit.
But James McGregor, a China expert, warned that Britain would now be seen as being “on a leash” by the Chinese leadership.
The chairman of the consultancy group APCO Worldwide’s Chinese operations told the Today programme: “This is incredible what’s going on right now, with the British government saying ‘we want to be your best friend, we want to be your best friend, we’ll do anything for it’.
“Well, 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 to him. I think England is going to rue the day they did this.”