Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn undeterred in Chinese human rights challenge

Jeremy Corbyn is not backing down over his plan to raise China's human rights' record when President Xi Jinping visits the UK, despite the red state's ambassador warning that the communist premier is not in the country to talk about the issue.

"You think the Labour Party will raise this issue at a state banquet? I don't think so," Liu Xiaoming told the BBC's Andrew Marr show. "The president is here for cooperation, for partnership – he's not here for debate about human rights."

But Corbyn, who recently pushed David Cameron over the government's controversial links to Saudi Arabia, will press ahead with his plan to raise his concerns about restrictions on personal and religious freedom in the one party state.

The Labour leader will seek to make his case in a private meeting with President Xi Jinping, rather than during the Queen's state banquet in Buckingham Palace on 20 October. "It was never going to be in the banquet and was always going to be in a private meeting. That's still the case," a spokesman for the Labour leader told IBTimes UK.

Amnesty International has warned that political dissidents face "harassment and arbitrary detention" in China and Human Rights Watch have gone so far as claiming that President Xi Jinping's leadership team, who came to power in 2013, have "unleashed an extraordinary assault" on activists.

But the issue has not stopped the UK government attempting to strengthen their political and economic ties with the Communist Party of China. The Chancellor George Osborne visited the country in September and said he wanted to build a "golden relationship" with the state.

"Through the ups and downs, let's stick together. Let's stick together to grow our economies," the top Conservative said at the Shanghai Stock Exchange. "Let's stick together to make Britain China's best partner in the West. Let's stick together and create a golden decade for both of our countries. Britain and China: we'll stick together."