Cameron strives to double British trade with China

London: David Cameron spent his second day in China Wednesday.

In an article for the Wall Street Journal, the prime minister lauded China, saying it was lifting billions of people out of poverty at a rate unprecedented in history, and made only passing reference to the need to address human rights.

Only a year ago one of the four cabinet ministers accompanying the PM, education secretary Michael Gove, denounced China as "a police state with thousands executed by government fiat every year". Gove said its leaders were the "real disciples" of the totalitarian state set out in George Orwell's 1984.

Dark fear

"They live by the dark fear he embedded at the heart of 1984 power stays with those who use it most ruthlessly."

The education secretary is in Beijing to sign a series of educational co-operation agreements.

Cameron predicted UK exports would rise to $30 billion a year by 2015, covering climate change, education, consumer technology and the creative industries. Chinese exports to the UK are three times the level of UK exports to China.

In his keynote article prior to his trip that set the tone for his talks with the Chinese leadership, Cameron said he was taking Sino-British relations "to a new level based on shared political and economic interests".

During his 36-hour visit accompanied by a 50-strong delegation, Cameron met the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, and the premier, Wen Jiabao. He was last in China as an opposition leader in 2007, when he strongly criticised China's human rights record, but on this trip he is putting British business interests first.

In his Wall Street Journal piece, Cameron wrote that Sino-British relations are built around a strong strategic fit between the two countries, and makes only a passing reference to human rights.

Strong relations

He said: "Our relationship should be strong enough to address not only those issues on which we agree, but those on which we take a different view."

Apart from Gove, Cameron was joined by the chancellor, George Osborne, the business secretary, Vince Cable, and the energy secretary, Chris Huhne.

Gove is hoping to expand on the number of Chinese students studying in the UK from the current figure of about 100,000.

They are the third-largest group of foreign students in British universities and colleges.

Treading carefully

Pearson announced it was adding 50 more English language schools in China to the 60 it already operates in the country.

Huhne will have to tread carefully with China, the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases and a key player in any future talks on the global climate change. It is due to set a new carbon-reduction plan shortly.