Chinese leader a prince short of a royal-flush welcome

Chinese President Xi Jinping inspects a guard of honour. Photo / AP

The Queen described President Xi Jinping's State visit to Britain as a "defining moment" for the future of Sino-UK relations as the Chinese leader spoke of the "everlasting friendship" between the two countries.

Barely two years after full diplomatic relations were restored, Xi said his four-day visit would lift the bilateral relationship to "a new height".

The first day of his stay in the UK, during which 30 billion ($68.9 billion) of trade deals are expected to be agreed, ended with a State banquet that reflected both the pomp and the pressure of a day in which tension was never far from the surface.

The dinner table at Buckingham Palace glistened with gold but the deliberate absence of the Prince of Wales from the set-piece event was a constant reminder that China's record on human rights remains a barrier in its relations with the West.

China's first lady Peng Liyuan, wife of President Xi Jinping with Britain's Queen Elizabeth II. Photo / AP

The Queen described the first State visit by a Chinese Premier for 10 years as "a milestone in the unprecedented year of co-operation and friendship between the United Kingdom and China" as Prime Minister David Cameron and Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne pursue a policy of making Britain China's most important European trading partner. In turn, Xi urged his audience at Buckingham Palace to "seize the opportunity" to build a new era of prosperity.

It is only two years since China allowed Cameron in from the cold after a 14-month diplomatic deep freeze imposed as punishment for meeting the Dalai Lama, leader of the disputed territory of Tibet.

Introducing Xi in Parliament's royal gallery, the Speaker, John Bercow, made a reference to the recent visit of Aung San Suu Kyi, as an "international symbol of the innate human right of freedom".

When Prince Charles welcomed the Chinese leader to Britain at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in London, Xi was smiling warmly in an official picture, while the Prince looked rather glum. No reporters were allowed to witness the meeting. Later, when the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh posed with Xi and his wife Peng Liyuan on their way in to Buckingham Palace, the Prince of Wales stalked up the steps in the background, ignoring photographers and TV cameras.

They had travelled to Buckingham Palace in a carriage procession, Free Tibet protesters booing from the sidelines. Pro-China supporters countered them by playing the Chinese national anthem.