David Cameron has risked infuriating China's Communist authorities by extolling the virtues of political democracy and a free press by saying he hoped China would develop towards "a greater political opening".
Mr Cameron accepted that Britain's society was "not perfect" and insisted he was not trying to lecture the Chinese or claim a position of "moral superiority".
But he said Britain's democratic traditions "make our government better and our country stronger", adding: "The rise in economic freedom in China in recent years has been hugely beneficial to China and to the world.
Mr Cameron is understood to have raised the detention of Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo at a banquet hosted by premier Wen Jiabao on Monday night.
He has made it clear that he will continue to make the case for human rights, insisting that "being able to talk through these issues - however difficult - makes our relationship stronger".
"We don't raise these issues to make to us look good, or to flaunt publicly that we have done so. We raise them because the British people expect us to, and because we have sincere and deeply held concerns."
The Prime Minister also warned that globalisation could "go into reverse", harming economies around the world, unless China acts to correct dangerous trade imbalances.
Ahead of a G20 summit at which Beijing will face pressure to allow faster appreciation of its yuan currency, Mr Cameron warned that the massive surpluses created by China's export success had created "a dangerous tidal wave of money" sweeping around the world.
