George Osborne has defended the UK’s desire to have close ties with China, despite the controversies over human rights and steel dumping that have been raised during the state visit.
The Chancellor said: “On difficult issues like steel, if we didn’t have the Chinese president here we wouldn’t even have an opportunity to talk to them about their production of steel and how that’s distorting world prices.”
Mr Osborne, who accompanied the president on a tour of Manchester University’s graphene institute, said: “We see ourselves as China’s strongest partner in the West.
A partnership is a relationship where we do things together like build nuclear power stations, invest in modern science, regenerate cities like Manchester.
“A partnership is also where you can have frank discussions about issues like the future of steelmaking or cyber security or, indeed, human rights.”
The Chancellor added: “What about the alternative? What if we didn’t invite the Chinese president to Britain, the head of the second largest economy in the world and one-fifth of the world’s population?
“If we weren’t having the dialogue, we couldn’t raise any of those issues, if we weren’t having the dialogue, we wouldn’t be getting the Chinese investment and the jobs wouldn’t be here. So that doesn’t strike me as a very sensible economic or, indeed, foreign policy plan.
“Let’s be engaged, and that’s what Britain is.”
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