Xi Jinping in the U.K.

Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in the U.K. today, where he will stay at Buckingham Palace, beginning his meeting schedule Tuesday, Oct. 20 with the Royals, the Prime Minister, opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, an address to Parliament and a visit to Manchester to discuss China’s participation in the effort to build up the industrial north of England.

Reuters notes that, while the British are looking to sign nuclear, high-speed rail, and other major projects during the visit, and talking of a “golden era” of U.K.-China relations, there will be some anti-China demonstrations by Amnesty International, Uighurs and other NGOs.

In a written interview with Reuters (prepared by his staff but approved by President Xi), Xi emphasized economic collaboration, noting that “while global growth has slowed down, China-U.K. investment and business cooperation has kept growing.”

Xi said: “The U.K. has stated that it will be the Western country that is most open to China. This is a visionary and strategic choice that fully meets Britain’s own long-term interest.” On the U.K. drive to be China’s financial hub, Xi said: “As one of the global financial centers, London is an important pump station in the world economic lifeline, so to speak. Strengthened financial cooperation with London is definitely a win-win choice for both countries.”

Lyndon LaRouche noted that there are top British interests who have a real problem on their hands, and wish to change the appearance of what they’re doing, but not the policy substance.

Xi protested the complaints about the Chinese government role in business: “Even under market conditions, countries support the growth of their companies in various ways, and such measures should not be all labeled as government subsidy. China’s system is different from that of Western countries. Due to historical reasons, Chinese companies perform many social functions, which are hard to measure with a simple arithmetic formula.”

He also hit at the real cause of the much ballyhooed slow-down in China (a “slow-down” to a mere 6.9% rate of growth in the last quarter!): “As an economy closely linked to international markets, China cannot stay immune to the lackluster performance of the global economy. We do have concerns about the Chinese economy, and we are working hard to address them. We also worry about the sluggish world economy, which affects all countries, especially developing ones.”