ANY QUOTES USED MUST BE ATTRIBUTED TO MURNAGHAN, SKY NEWS

DERMOT MURNAGHAN: Well now, the President of China Xi Jinping will pay a state visit to the UK later this week.  David Cameron has described it as a golden era in ties between the two countries with major deals expecting to be struck including those on nuclear energy and railways.  I am joined now by China’s Ambassador to the UK, His Excellency Liu Xiaoming.  A very good morning to you, Ambassador.  Now the broad question first of all, does the UK have anything to fear from China?  

LIU XIAOMING: Nothing to fear about China.  China is a peace loving country and the President will be here for co-operation purposes and I think China/UK have a lot to cooperate and China/UK are two important countries of global influence.  By working together the two countries will help to build a better world, to promote prosperity and save the world peace.  

DM: Okay, I ask that question because I’m sure you’ve had a look at it as well, our security service MI5 has an open and accessible website talking to the British public and it has a question and answer page saying what are the biggest current threats to national security and there we have at number two, Chinese cyber-terrorism.  MI5 are concerned about China.

LIU XIAOMING: I think China is also very much opposed to cyber-crime.  China itself is a victim of hacking attack.    

DM: From where, where does it emanate from?  

LIU XIAOMING: From where, everywhere I would say.  I would say cyber is not a safe place and I think countries should work together rather than criticise each other.  During the President’s recent state visit, he and President Obama reached consensus that both governments will not support any cyber-crime and will not be supportive of any organisation engaging in cyber-crime.   

DM: Well that is loud and clear but why would MI5 have come up with this analysis that China is one of the biggest global threats of cyber-crime?  How did they become so deluded?

LIU XIAOMING: I am very sorry to hear about their …

DM: Did you not know about it?  

LIU XIAOMING: I am sorry to hear about this analysis but I hear quite a lot about the concerns about nuclear power station and I think Chinese companies are here to build nuclear power at the request British businesses, at the request of British government. They are here not for so-called control of nuclear power, we are here for win-win co-operation.  We will play by international standards, we will follow international rules, it’s transparent and I think your security authorities, regulation authorities are not that stupid to let a Chinese company to control your nuclear facilities.  I think this is things that have been hyped up by some media, by some people who do not want to see us …

DM: Hyped up by the media and the security services, as I say, there it is on the MI5 website.  

LIU XIAOMING: I think you should put this question to your MI5 and other people but we are here, not for spying on your nuclear facilities, I think we have more interest in doing something else and we are here for co-operation, for win-win.  That’s the whole purpose of Chinese investment here.  

DM: I know that President Xi Jinping is going to have long discussions about the Northern Powerhouse which I understand doesn’t really translate very easily into Chinese.

LIU XIAOMING:  It’s not that difficult, the Chinese language is very rich.  I think Northern Powerhouse – do you speak Mandarin?   

DM: I’m afraid not.   

LIU XIAOMING: Ah, there are several translations but at the end of the day we found a very perfect one.

DM: That’s good to hear but there are concerns about what’s going on in Northern parts of Britain at the moment when it comes to the steel industry and again, big concerns about China, a huge producer of steel.  Do you accept criticisms of China, that China has now got massive over-capacity in steel and is dumping it on global markets and instead of a Northern Powerhouse, you are creating as one of our newspapers said this morning,  a Northern poorhouse, if that translates.  

LIU XIAOMING: I think every country has to adjust itself to this globalisation, even in the case of China.  You know, China used to be a manufacturing power, used to be a processing power for clothes, for toys, in the past. I think China export maybe 90, 80% of toys to this country, to the United States but now we are faced with very competitive neighbours in south-east Asian countries and their labour is more competitive, costs more low, business move from China to those countries and so we have to adjust from processing to manufacturing.  I think any country, every country has to adjust itself but we of course are here, we should accommodate looking for common ground between China and UK.  We certainly will address concerns about the environment here, we certainly will address concerns of the local community.

DM: You’ll have seen it, you’re the Ambassador after all, large concerns about China’s human rights record, in particular things like the vast number of people, an unknown number of people who are executed in China and things like that.  The Prime Minister has said we oppose the death penalty anywhere and everywhere and we will raise it at all opportunities, presumably the Prime Minister is going to do this with the President.  Do you think that’s rude?

LIU XIAOMING: First of all I would say it is the first time he has been here for five years.  I heard a lot of comments about human rights in China but I think more often than not people miss the big picture of human rights in China.  What is human rights?  I believe that the basic right is for people to have better living.  I think sometimes when people talk about human rights they miss the picture that China in the past thirty years has elevated 600 people [sic] out of poverty, no other country has done that in such a short period of time and Chinese people are living better, living longer and enjoying their happy life.  Even in the political life I think not in the history of China have people enjoyed unprecedented dignities and freedom.  You are talking about the death penalty, China is a large country, to run a country of 1.3 billion will be naturally different than to run a country of 64 million and the penalty has been handled in a very careful way and the number reduced with each passing year and has to be proved by the Supreme Court, it has gone through a very careful process.

DM: We are running out of time, the last question about the Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.  I know you’ll have been viewing his election with interest, are there going to be any substantive discussions between your President and the leader of the Labour party, the leader of the opposition?

LIU XIAOMING: President Xi will have a meeting with Jeremy Corbyn during the state visit at Buckingham Palace.  We look forward to a productive interesting meeting and Jeremy Corbyn as the leader of Labour.  

DM: Do you think they’ll get on, he’s a Socialist and you are Communists?

LIU XIAOMING: You know, Socialists can debate.  Socialists and Capitalists can have a debate you know but we are here for common ground.  In fact last week I had an interesting meeting with Jeremy Corbyn to prepare for the President’s meeting with him. I think the Labour party has made important contributions to developing relations between our two countries and currently we have very strong party to party relationships, both with the Conservative party and the Labour and I hope the Labour party under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn will continue to make these positive contributions to this important relationship.  

DM: Your Excellency, we are out of time.  Great to see you, thank you very much indeed and here’s to a successful visit.  

LIU XIAOMING: My pleasure.