BEIJING, Aug 29, 2023 (BSS/AFP) - British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly 
will visit China this week, the two countries said Tuesday, as Beijing and 
London seek to shift a turbulent recent relationship onto surer footing.

Cleverly will become the first UK foreign secretary to travel to China since 
Jeremy Hunt in 2018.

Relations have soured since then over issues including human rights, 
technology and Beijing's crackdown in the former British colony of Hong Kong.

"It is hoped that the UK side will work alongside China in upholding a spirit 
of mutual respect, conduct in-depth exchanges, enhance understanding, and 
promote the stable development of China-UK relations," ministry spokesperson 
Wang Wenbin said.

"As permanent members of the UN Security Council and major economies in the 
world, China and the UK shoulder the common responsibility of promoting world 
peace, stability and development," Wang said at a regular media briefing in 
Beijing.

Britain's foreign office said Cleverly would hold meetings with top Chinese 
diplomat Wang Yi and vice president Han Zheng.

He will discuss human rights in Hong Kong and China's troubled Xinjiang and 
Tibet regions, as well as cybersecurity, Russia's invasion of Ukraine and 
tensions in the disputed South China Sea, the foreign office said.

"No significant global problem -- from climate change to pandemic prevention, 
from economic instability to nuclear proliferation -- can be solved without 
China," Cleverly said.

"China's size, history and global significance means they cannot be ignored, 
but that comes with a responsibility on the global stage," he said. "That 
responsibility means China fulfilling its international commitments and 
obligations."

Cleverly's visit was initially expected to take place in July but was 
postponed due to the mysterious disappearance of Beijing's now ex-foreign 
minister Qin Gang.

- Nuanced approach -

Cleverly has called for a pragmatic, constructive and united Western approach 
to China's rising clout, acknowledging the need to work in partnership with 
Beijing.

But hawkish elements in the UK's ruling Conservative party have urged London 
to take a tougher stance on China.

In July, China accused Britain of giving protection to fugitives after 
Cleverly slammed the Hong Kong government's decision to offer bounties for 
information leading to the capture of prominent democracy activists based 
overseas.

And on Sunday evening, state-backed nationalist tabloid the Global Times 
demanded that the British Museum "return Chinese cultural relics for free", 
setting off a domestic social media firestorm.

Britain ruled over Hong Kong for more than a century until it was returned to 
China in 1997 under an agreement that promised to preserve the city's civic 
freedoms and democratic ways of life.

But tensions flared as many in the financial hub chafed under what they saw 
as Beijing's deliberate erosion of those freedoms.

China's ruling Communist Party imposed a sweeping national security law in 
Hong Kong in 2020 after huge, sometimes violent pro-democracy protests there.

Almost all dissent against Beijing in the city has since been quashed.