Chen Guangcheng says Cameron fears offending Beijing

Blind activist Chen Guangcheng has accused the British government of running scared from Beijing.

Chen is in the UK to receive an award for exposing the plight of hundreds of thousands of Chinese women forced to undergo abortions and sterilisations as part of China’s strict one-child policy. But his request to meet with the Prime Minister David Cameron and Foreign Secretary William Hague during his five-day visit has been snubbed because Downing Street fears “further punishment” from Beijing and that it will lose out on trade deals.

Mr Cameron was forced to cancel a trip to China last month because the Chinese government refused him high level meetings.

Beijing remains incensed over Cameron’s meeting with the exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama 12 months ago, and has frozen all high level diplomatic contact since – minister Kenneth Clarke was also forced to abandon a trade trip late last month.

Beijing is demanding Downing Street publicly admit Cameron’s encounter with the Dalai Lama was a mistake. But Chen – who last year escaped from house arrest and claimed asylum at the US embassy – warned Cameron that his kowtowing to Beijing and placing trade above human rights was damaging Britain’s international reputation as a nation of democratic values and freedom.

“The British government will not meet with me because they are scared of upsetting the Chinese government. But I tell David Cameron and his ministers that I am not scared of Beijing,” said a defiant Chen on Monday after picking up the Westminster Award for his human rights work at the Houses of Parliament.