UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said China plays a "gigantic" role in the economy and he expects trade to continue to increase throughout his lifetime.

"China is a gigantic part of our economic life and will be for a long time - for our lifetime," he said in an interview with Bloomberg. "I'm not going to tell you the UK government is going to pitchfork away every overture from China."

"But that does not mean that we should be naive in the way we look at our critical national infrastructure," said Johnson, in response to questions about Chinese firms' involvement in nuclear power and 5G networks in the UK - "those are all legitimate concerns for any government."

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Johnson added that the UK would retain a "cautious" approach over China, a key player in tackling international issues such as climate change.

"We should be cautious about how we handle our CNI (critical national infrastructure) and about how we handle FDI (foreign direct investment) from China.... that is why we have brought in some of the legislation that we have," he added.

"I am no Sino-phobe, very far from it. China is a great country, a great civilization," Johnson added.

Responding to the comments, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin said: "The UK is a staunch supporter and practitioner of free trade, and China and the UK are important trade and investment partners. It is in the interests of both sides to carry out practical cooperation on the principle of mutual benefit and win-win cooperation, and we hope that the UK will create a fair, open and non-discriminatory business environment for Chinese enterprises."

China, which this year became the UK's biggest single import market, has repeatedly called for London to work together on issues of common interests and refrain from involvement in China's domestic affairs.

The UK last year banned Chinese telecoms group Huawei from involvement in its 5G network in the wake of U.S. raising spying fears - allegations that Huawei rejects.

China also rejects as the "lie of the century" claims from the U.S. and UK about treatment of the Uygur ethnic group in Xinjiang. The issue has led to an exchange of sanctions.

Johnson has faced pressure to block China's state-owned nuclear firm CGN from working alongside France's EDF in the construction of two new nuclear power plants in the UK.