Theresa May will present Xi Jinping with a Blue Planet boxset when the two meet in Beijing on Thursday, but the Chinese president may have already seen the BBC series – considering its huge popularity in his country.

The seven-part natural history series was watched by millions across the globe, and proved especially popular in China where an estimated 26 million people saw the first episode and approximately 100 million watched the second online, resulting in the country’s internet slowing to glacial pace.



The copy May is giving to Xi has the benefit of a unique DVD extra – a specially recorded message from Sir David Attenborough – and is intended to highlight both countries’ determination to stop plastic pollution.

The British prime minister and several of her ministers have praised the series, including the environment secretary, Michael Gove, who said he was haunted by images of the damage done to the world’s oceans by plastic waste.

Xi’s reaction to the gift will be scrutinised closely. While China has strict anti-pollution laws environmentalists say there is lax monitoring and enforcement of polluters. Experts estimate that more than 90% of the plastic choking the world’s oceans come from 10 rivers – five of which are in China.

On Wednesday, the first day of her three-day visit to China, May visited an environmental project on the Yangtze river near Wuhan, one of the major sources of plastic pollution, where 330,000 tonnes are dumped into the East China Sea, according to a study in the journal Nature.

UK government officials said there was genuine environmental concern from China, and action on plastics and pollution would be discussed when May meets Xi.

“They are working on it, that’s why the PM wanted to see the work being done to remove very small particles of plastic [from the river],” an official said. “She sees it as a shared agenda.”