Read the Red Box blog on Brown's troubled departure

When Gordon Brown sweeps into the snow-dusted Chinese capital this morning, he will see the Union Jack fluttering from the flagpoles in Tiananmen Square as Beijing rolls out a red-carpet welcome for his first visit as Prime Minister.

Mr Brown has a brisk schedule of meetings with Chinese political leaders and a business-like list of priorities headed by trade, investment and environmental programmes.

Twenty-five business leaders from Britain’s technology, energy and financial services sectors, including Sir Richard Branson, are travelling with him. British officials expect to agree to boost trade with China to $60 billion (£30 billion) by 2010, up from $40 billion now.

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The Prime Minister’s one-day visit to Beijing, followed by a day in Shanghai, will be a low-key affair that is unlikely to set off the frenzy of headlines generated by President Sarkozy of France, who oversaw $30 billion in deals during his trip last November.

Nor is Mr Brown likely to court controversy over press freedoms and human rights, as Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, did in Beijing in August. Caution rather than confrontation is likely to be the tone of Mr Brown’s visit.

China, whose recent investments in American financial firms such as Morgan Stanley has aroused some opposition in Washington, will be pleased by Mr Brown’s stance.

The Prime Minister will pledge to keep London’s financial markets open to China’s sovereign wealth fund, provided the investment agency operates commercially and follows the City’s principles of transparency and corporate governance.

Britain has notified China that the Prime Minister will want to raise concerns about its human rights record — although he will do so in general terms rather than citing specific cases, officials said. More details would be discussed separately at the annual meeting on January 28 of the Anglo-China human rights dialogue, which for the first time will include a visit to Tibet.

In this, Mr Brown’s trip will diverge markedly from that of Mrs Merkel. She did not mince her words, telling China to stamp out fakes and warning it that the world would be watching its human rights record as the Olympics approached.

The Prime Minister is expected to mention China’s support for the military regime in Burma and its opposition to tougher sanctions against Sudan in a circumspect way. British officials say that progress cannot be made without Chinese involvement and this could be jeopardised by antagonising Beijing.

On a lighter note, during a crowded day in Beijing, Mr Brown will take the time to get together with ordinary Chinese who have been invited to a “town hall meeting” at People’s University.

There will be an opportunity for Mr Brown’s team to bat the ball about with the four-time Olympic women’s table tennis champion Deng Yaping, who is also deputy director of the Olympic Games Village, where the athletes will stay this summer. And he will be treated to a visit to the National Stadium — an iconic mesh of steel girders known as the Bird’s Nest — that will be at the heart of the Games.

The Prime Minister will not be following Mr Sarkozy’s example of taking over Beijing’s most avant-garde art gallery space as the site for a glitzy party for his expatriate community.

However, Mr Brown has come up with an initiative of his own — to promote the use of the English language in China, particularly in universities that have been building ties with counterparts in Britain. It may not be headline news, but could be welcome among millions of young Chinese ambitious to make their way in the world.

Top EU exporters to China

Germany €27bn

France €8.1bn

Italy €5.7bn

UK €4.8bn

Netherlands €3.3bn

Belgium €2.9bn

Sweden €2.2bn

Source: Eurostat

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