The Chinese president isn't visiting the UK for a debate about human rights, Chinese ambassador warns

The Labour leader is expected to raise the imprisonment of human rights lawyers

Liu Xiaoming, the Chinese ambassador to the UK (BBC)

The president of China is not visiting the UK for a “debate” about human rights issues, China’s ambassador to the UK has said.

Liu Xiaoming said he did not think Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn would raise the issue of the country’s poor record at a state banquet hosted by the Queen.

“You think Labour Party will raise this issue at a state banquet? I don’t think so. I think the president is here for cooperation, for partnership. He’s not here for debate about human rights,” Mr Liu told BBC One's Andrew Marr Show.

“We all know that China, UK, differ very much because we have different history, different culture, different stage of development. It’s natural we have differences, even with regard to human rights.

“In China we care more about the rights for better life, for better job, for better housing. I think the Chinese people enjoy their happy life.”

The Independent on Sunday reports that Mr Corbyn will instead hold a one-on-one meeting with Xi Jinping over case of Liu Xiaobo, a Nobel Prize-winner who is under detention. He is also expected to use the meeting to call for the release of imprisoned human rights lawyers.

The Chinese Communist party general secretary and People’s Republic of China president will make his first state visit to the UK this week.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

Chinese state media praised the George Osborne for downplaying the country’s human rights abuses on his visit there in September.

During his trip to promote investment opportunities in the UK to Chinese business the Chancellor downplayed the country’s lack of democracy and human rights abuses as a “different political system.”

He argued that Britain could still be the one-party dictatorship’s “best partner in the West” despite its record of torture, ethnic persecution, and restricting freedom of the press.

A newspaper run by the Chinese Communist Party, the Global Times, said Mr Osborne was right not to question China, “keeping a modest manner”.

Human Rights Watch's 2015 annual report on the country said it “remains an authoritarian state, one that systematically curbs fundamental rights, including freedom of expression, association, assembly, and religion, when their exercise is perceived to threaten one-party rule”.

The organisation says the current administration has made some limited positive steps certain areas but have also “unleashed an extraordinary assault on basic human rights and their defenders with a ferocity unseen in recent years”.

Amnesty International says that in China: “The authorities continued to severely restrict the right to freedom of expression.

“Activists and human rights defenders risked harassment and arbitrary detention. Torture and other ill-treatment remained widespread and access to justice was elusive for many.

“Ethnic minorities including Tibetans, Uighurs and Mongolians faced discrimination and increased security crackdown. Record numbers of workers went on strike demanding better pay and conditions.”