Cameron Heads To China On 'Vital' Mission

Prime Minister David Cameron is flying to China on a "vitally important" mission for the British economy.

Can Cameron promote trade and criticise China's human rights record all at once?

Business Secretary Vince Cable is in Beijing ahead of the PM to begin three days of intensive trade talks, with the aim of "cementing a partnership for growth" between the UK and the world's second-largest economy.

But Mr Cameron also faces the awkward challenge of voicing Britain's human rights concerns with hosts who have been unwilling to accept criticism on this.

The trip comes shortly after the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo, and days after China warned Western diplomats against attending the award ceremony in Oslo next month.

Britain has said its ambassador intends to attend.

Cameron and Cable are on a mission

And artist Ai Weiwei - who created the current sunflower seed installation in London's Tate Modern - has been placed under house arrest amid a row over the demolition of his Shanghai studio.

Mr Cameron is expected to raise human rights issues during his talks with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and President Hu Jintao, but it is unclear how forcefully he will press individual cases.

Mr Cameron is in China ahead of a meeting of the G20 in the South Korean capital Seoul.

He will join leaders - including US President Barack Obama - to discuss how to maintain the global economic recovery.

With its GDP growing by 8.5% even during the last year, China is at the centre of hopes for renewed global economic health.

But Beijing will be under pressure at the G20 to ease trade imbalances by allowing a faster appreciation in the value of its currency, the yuan.

However Mr Cable said: "I certainly haven't come here to lecture them on exchange rate policy.

"There is a wider issue of which this is a part, which is the big imbalance between some countries and others."

On human rights, he added: "I don't think we will approach it by lecturing them, but they know this is part of the wider political and economic framework in which we operate."