Foreign Secretary: We Are Not China's Servants

Philip Hammond says he will tackle the Chinese leadership on steel during president Xi Jinping's visit, which gets underway today.

 The Foreign Secretary has said China has much to learn from Britain and that the UK should overtake Germany to become the country's biggest trading partner in Europe.

David Cameron will today hail a new "Golden Era" in UK-Chinese relations as President Xi Jinping officially begins a state visit to Britain.
The Prime Minister says £30bn worth of trade and investment deals will be completed - creating 3,900 jobs in energy, transport, retail, and property.
Speaking to Sky News ahead of Mr Xi's address to parliament later, Mr Hammond denied Britain was in a "master/servant" relationship with China.
He said over the next 10 years Britain would develop a "deeper relationship" with China that would bring huge benefits to Britain such as investment in infrastructure, high-spending Chinese tourists and Chinese students.

He said China's economy was "evolving" but it was still a developing economy and much of the country was underdeveloped, which provided opportunities for British businesses.

Mr Hammond denied cheap Chinese steel flooding European markets was to blame for the collapse of the British steel industry and said it was due to a global overproduction.

He said: "It's certainly one of the subjects that will be on the agenda, the steel industry. China is a very big producer of steel, as you would expect.

"But there's a global over-capacity in the steel industry and that's caused prices to fall very precipitately over the last 12 months or so, and that's causing a problem around the world."