“Today with VP Han Zheng, I made plain the UK’s views on Hong Kong, Xinjiang and Taiwan,” Cleverly said on Twitter. “We also discussed working together on climate change, economic ties and people-to-people links.”

The rare meeting between senior government officials from Britain and China comes during a low point in relations.

London has restricted Chinese investment over national security worries and expressed concern at Beijing’s increasing military and economic assertiveness.

In a speech in London last week, Cleverly urged China to be more open about what he called the biggest military build-up in peacetime history, and said Britain should engage constructively with China despite its “revulsion” over the treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang.

A host of foreign dignitaries and heads of state are visiting London for Charles’s coronation on Saturday, and British ministers are using the opportunity to hold meetings with foreign leaders.