‘The Chinese side has expressed its strong dissatisfaction about the incident,’ foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said in a statement.

‘The British side has expressed deep regret to the Chinese side and said Britain would punish this person in accordance with laws.’

‘Facts show the troublemaker who conducted this mean act is not accepted by the public, and he will not stop the trend of a developing friendly relationship between China and Britain.’

As Wen gave a speech at Cambridge University in England on Monday, a protester hurled a shoe at him and urged others in the crowd to also protest.

British police later said they had charged a 27-year-old man with a public order offence in relation to the incident.

In a clear echo of the Iraqi journalist who threw a shoe at George W. Bush in Baghdad in December, the protester had shouted: ‘This is a scandal,’ as he interrupted Wen’s speech from the back of the auditorium.

‘This dictator here, how can you listen to the lies he’s telling? You are not challenging him,’ he said before blowing a whistle and hurling a sports trainer at Wen, who had been discussing China’s role in the globalised world.

The shoe landed about a metre away from Wen, who glanced sharply to one side to watch it hit the stage, but did not appear frightened. A security man kicked the shoe off the stage.

As the protester was bundled out, he shouted to audience members: ‘Stand up and protest,’ to which some of the spectators-most of whom appeared to be Chinese students-retorted: ‘Shame on you, shame on you.’

After the interruption, Wen reproached the demonstrator.

‘This despicable behaviour cannot stand in the way of friendship between China and the UK,’ he said, receiving a round of applause from the audience.