Chinese ambassador warns UK government over human rights criticism

Chinese ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming, has warned the UK government not to lecture his country on human rights if it wanted strong economic ties, days ahead of Chinese premier Li Keqiang's impending visit to the UK.

Rejecting local media reports of China's threatening to cancel the trip if Li did not get to meet the Queen, he told reporters that was not China's way of doing business.

The visit, the first by the Chinese premier to the UK and the first by a Chinese premier in three years, is expected to yield business deals worth a total value of over $30 billion.

The British PM led a large business delegation to China last year.

Li, who will be accompanied by what, according to China was an unprecedented number of Chinese business leaders, is due to hold talks with prime minister David Cameron and would have an audience with the Queen.

Relations between the two countries were getting back to normal after China took offence at Cameron's meeting with the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader, in 2012.

China's ambassador to the UK, told reporters in London he thought Li's visit next week presaged "a bright future" between the world's second and sixth biggest economies, though the way London had expressed concerns about human rights issues in the past had damaged relations.

Meanwhile, the UK will announce a liberalisation of its visa regime for Chinese visitors during a visit next week by China's premier, Li Keqiang, as David Cameron responded to protests from Beijing that bilateral trade was being harmed by restrictive rules.

Ambassador Liu had warned that tough immigration rules were eroding "British strength". Meanwhile, Whitehall sources had confirmed that reforms would be announced on Monday to encourage investors and other visitors from China.

The announcement would be made on the first day of a three-day visit by Li, in the second Anglo-Chinese summit in six months; which normally are held once a year.

The ministers responded to Chinese criticism over the UK's visa regime by making a series of changes last year.

Chancellor Osborne announced during a visit to China last October that UK would introduce a 24-hour "super priority" visa service for business leaders.

A separate pilot scheme allowed certain Chinese travel agents to apply for UK visas by submitting the application form used for the EU's Schengen visa, but the according to Liu,  the reforms did not go far enough.