Chinese president Xi Jinping is set to address the UK parliament, dine at Buckingham Palace and ride in a royal carriage next week as London rolls out the reddest of red carpets for the Communist party leader. Indeed, so warm are ties that one of the last remaining niggles is a matter of mere protocol: how high to pitch the pre-visit hyperbole.
Beijing and London have been engaged in linguistic ping pong for weeks, batting back and forth ever more florid descriptions of mutual affection, officials organising the visit said.
China started the bidding by calling 2015 a “big year” for ties. UK officials then offered “a golden year”, but by the time David Cameron, the UK prime minister, spoke recently on the phone to his counterpart, Li Keqiang, he had elevated this to “a golden time”, the officials said.