Patrick McLoughlin to boost China links According to one estimate Britain is losing as much as £1.2 billion a year in revenues from Chinese who are put off visiting the country. With the Chancellor having tackled the visa issue, the Transport Secretary will open talks aimed at stepping up transport links between the two countries by updating an agreement which has been in place for nearly 10 years. Currently flights by British and Chinese airlines out of China and the UK are limited to 31 return services each week into just six separate destinations, a level that was agreed in 2004. "There is a lot of demand for flights," Mr McLoughlin told The Telegraph. We are very keen to get more visitors here. We have had the Chancellor's announcement on visas. We would like to increase the number of destinations in China as well as more flights to existing destinations. I hope we will be able to make some progress on that. Mr McLoughlin also hopes that agreement could be reached on increasing the number of British airports offering flights to China. He is also keen to not only boost the chances of British companies bidding for work in China but to also see how the country has been transformed by huge investment in infrastructure. Mr McLoughlin will sample China's high-speed train network, travelling from Beijing to Tianjin, a 75 mile journey lasting just over half an hour as well as seeing Beijing International airport which, when finished, will be the biggest in the world. The Chancellor has been generous in terms of investment in our roads and rail network, and not just HS2. It shows what happens when a country invests in infrastructure and we have to do the same.