LONDON (Reuters) – British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said he expected to meet China’s Vice President Han Zheng when senior Chinese figures visit London for King Charles’ coronation later this week.
“I suspect that I will,” Cleverly told BBC Radio when asked if he would be meeting the Chinese vice president.
“And when I do, I will discuss a whole range of things just as I do when I meet other Chinese officials, including those areas where we have points of criticism.”
A host of foreign dignitaries and heads of state are visiting London this week ahead of the May 6 coronation at Westminster Abbey and ministers are likely to use the opportunity to hold meetings with foreign leaders.
Any meeting between Cleverly and Han would come during a low point in UK-China relations after London restricted Chinese investment over national security worries and expressed concern at Beijing’s increasing military and economic assertiveness.
Cleverly suggested he would speak to Han about some of those concerns.
“When we engage, it’s about making sure that the Chinese government understand our views on a range of issues including those issues where we feel strongly their behaviour is inappropriate, like for example, their failure to abide by the commitments in Hong Kong, or by the treatment of the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang,” he said.
In a speech in London last week, Cleverly urged China to be more open about what he called the biggest military build-up in peacetime history and said secrecy around its plans could lead to a “tragic miscalculation”.
He also said Britain should engage “robustly and constructively” with China despite what he called “revulsion” over the treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang.
(Reporting by Sachin Ravikumar; Editing by Kate Holton)
