May commits to environmental issues with gift for Xi

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan have afternoon tea with visiting British Prime Minister Theresa May and her husband Philip May in Beijing, capital of China, Feb. 1, 2018. [Photo: Xinhua/Ding Lin]

Visiting British Prime Minister Theresa May has given Chinese President Xi Jinping a boxed set of the BBC nature documentary Blue Planet II as a gift, reports Global Times citing British and American media. 

A hand-written personal message from narrator Sir David Attenborough also came with the set. 

British newspaper The Independent claims May's gift highlights the cooperation on environmental issue between China and the United Kingdom. 

UK officials said May's gift was a sign that May saw the issue as a "shared agenda" for the two countries. 

On the first day of her visit to China, May demonstrated her commitment to environmental protection by traveling down the Yangtze River on a boat which cleans plastic particles. 

Blue Planet II is a sequel to the BBC's 2001 hit documentary Blue Planet. The new series centers on marine life and was aired in the UK at the end of last year. It has since been critically acclaimed on Chinese social media and has had 80 million viewers in China already, according to CNN.