A raft of commercial deals between the UK and China totalling more than £17bn will be agreed later in the first visit to Britain by a Chinese leader for over three years.
China's Premier Li Keqiang is accompanied by a delegation of more than 150 business leaders and top level Communist Party officials.
He is holding talks with David Cameron at a UK-China summit and a news conference will provide a rare opportunity to question the Chinese leadership.
Mr Li will also be given a guard of honour and have an audience with the Queen at Windsor Castle in a move which has angered critics of China's record on Human Rights and political freedoms.
Campaign group Free Tibet has written to Buckingham Palace requesting the meeting with the Queen is cancelled.
"A meeting [between the Queen and] a leader of the world's largest authoritarian state at a time of increased repression inside its borders does not appear to be in the interests of the monarchy, the United Kingdom, or those resisting oppression across the world," the letter read.
Britain's Deputy Prime Minister used unusually direct language and risky timing to describe China's people as being "politically shackled to a doctrine which is a one party state, a communist state".
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