David Cameron today promised he would raise human rights issues in his two days of talks with the Chinese leadership without hectoring or lecturing, but No 10 declined to go into details of which specific cases would be raised.

British officials are aware of the Chinese government's refusal to allow two human rights activists to fly to London yesterday, including the lawyers for jailed Nobel peace prize winner Liu Xiaobo. British officials broadly suggested that the case would be mentioned at some point in the round of discussions.

Cameron on his first visit to China as prime minister was speaking before his official meeting with the Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao, at the Great Hall in Beijing.

Cameron's efforts to double trade with China by 2015 received a boost when Rolls-Royce won a £740m order from China Eastern Airlines. The prime minister has targeted annual trade of more than £62bn with the country within five years.

Cameron told British reporters he would bring up human rights issues with China but that it wasn't Britain's role to lecture or hector China. Some rights groups have accused Britain of soft-pedalling on sensitive political issues to avoid harming its trade prospects.

The Rolls-Royce order, signed in the presence of the prime minister, is for Trent 700 engines to power 16 Airbus A330 aircraft and is by far the largest such deal sealed during a trip by the largest British delegation ever to visit China.

In a round of TV interviews, Cameron was asked if he would press human rights issues with the Chinese leadership. He is under extra pressure since he is the first western leader to visit China since the 8 October award of the Nobel peace prize to Liu, and is struggling to prevent the visit being overshadowed by human rights issues, rather than the raft of business deals he is intent on signing.

Cameron said: "Of course we have a really high-level dialogue with China on all sorts of issues ranging from the economy and trade and business and of course human rights.

"That is how it should be. Of course we shouldn't be lecturing and hectoring but it is right we have a dialogue on these things."

Asked if he feared jeopardising trade deals by being forthright on human rights, Cameron said: "I don't think that's the way these relationships should work.

"We do have a shared interest in expanding our exports and our trade with each other but we do also have a very high-level dialogue with China on a number of issues including human rights.

"Yes we want a stronger economic and business relationship with China – we are the fifth largest economy in the world but we only have 2% of China's imports – but our dialogue is mature enough that we cover all of these areas, including human rights."

Cameron inspected a military guard of honour and was watched by four cabinet members: the chancellor, George Osborne, the education secretary, Michael Gove, the energy secretary, Chris Huhne, and the business secretary, Vince Cable. Gove only a year ago denounced China as an Orwellian police state that murdered hundreds of people daily by executive fiat.

Behind an impressive military guard inspected slowly by Cameron were two pictures of the Great Wall. At the start of the formal discussions held in a nearby hall, this time with a tapestry of the Great Wall of China and both delegations arrayed on either side of a long thin table, the official formal opening exchanges began.

Cameron told Wen: "It is pleasure to be back in China," adding that he remembered the promises he made in February 2009 when he first met the Chinese premier about what he would do to strengthen relations with China.

He said: "My new government does highly value the relationship between Britain and China. This is an area where there should be continuity with the last government that helped establish this very strong relationship." He recalled Lady Thatcher's agreement to relinquish Hong Kong, signing an agreement with Deng Xiaoping.