Just as Britain rolled out the red carpet for Chinese President Xi Jinping this week, England's most famous constitutional document was being shunted about Beijing and Shanghai like an unwelcome guest.

One of just four existing examples of the Magna Carta—Latin for “Great Charter”—is going on a public tour across three Chinese cities this month, as part of celebrations marking the document’s 800 anniversary. But just days before the display was due to start in Beijing and Shanghai, the venues were moved from public spaces to British diplomatic premises.

Hailed as the cornerstone for modern civil liberties, the Magna Carta is credited with providing the conceptual underpinnings for legal rights and freedoms such as a free press and equality before the law, as well as influencing later instruments like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the U.S. constitution.

Its tour of Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai marks the first time the Magna Carta has come to China, which has been governed by an authoritarian Communist regime for close to seven decades.

Western legal scholars say the Communist Party occupies a place above the laws it passes and applies justice unevenly, paying scant attention to Western notions of rule of law that are associated with the Magna Carta. In the past year, China’s government has progressively tightened controls over civil society and pursued what rights groups have described as an unprecedented crackdown on human-rights lawyers—moves that legal scholars say suggest that Mr. Xi wishes to strengthen his grip on power despite committing to legal reforms to strengthen “rule of law” at a top party meeting last year.