Starmer’s multi-purpose visit to China

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer arrived in China today with Business Secretary Peter Kyle, bent on boosting UK economic ties with Beijing but anxious, too, that his visit not alienate US President Donald Trump at a time when London-Washington ties are under strain. In the first visit to China by a UK leader since 2018, Starmer will meet President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang. 

The Chinese government sees the Starmer visit as an opportunity to advance what an official spokesman termed  “pragmatic cooperation” and enhance political trust.  “China is no longer just the world’s factory; it is also becoming a global market,” Zhao Minghao, a professor in the Institute of International Studies at Shanghai’s Fudan University, remarked separately.   

Dozens of corporate chiefs accompany Starmer as London seeks Chinese technology and investment, plus greater access to the world’s second-largest economy for UK financial services, cars and the perennial British export, Scotch whisky.

However, Kerry Brown, director of the Lau China Institute at King’s College London, cautioned that the UK Prime Minister should be prepared to face “a very sceptical” audience, noting that Britain’s relations with China “have been very hot and cold” since the short-lived “golden era” ushered in by President Xi’s state visit to Britain in 2015. 

Beijing’s crackdown on civil liberties in Hong Kong, its support for Russia in the Ukraine war and growing concern about espionage and economic interference subsequently pulled London and Beijing further apart, with successive Conservative governments barring Chinese investment in the sensitive field of telecoms infrastructure and clamping down on investment in new UK nuclear power plants.

On entering office 18 months ago, Starmer’s Labour Party government reviewed relations with Beijing, claiming the need to protect national security from Chinese espionage and interference while mindful of the need to maintain diplomatic dialogue and economic cooperation with the Asian superpower at a time when Britain’s economy and the PM’s own political standing could benefit from a much-needed boost. The Labour Party is currently behind the hard-right Reform UK in opinion polls, and Labour MPs are at odds with one another about supporting Starmer’s continuing leadership, given the potential availability of more charismatic Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham. 

Added to Starmer’s concerns is a complicated and increasingly fractious relationship with the White House. Starmer studiously avoided public criticism of Donald Trump when the US president belittled London’s mayor, berated British immigration policy, and sued the BBC for $10 billion. This placatory stance earned Britain a trade deal that lowered previously raised US tariffs on the UK’s vital car and aerospace industries. However, more recently, Starmer has called Trump’s repeated declarations about wanting to take over Greenland “completely wrong” and termed Trump’s disparaging comments about the role of UK and other NATO troops in Afghanistan as “insulting” and “appalling.”

Starmer insists Britain does not need to choose between the US and China. He is aware, nonetheless, that his visit to Beijing comes days after that of Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney and that German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is due there next month, a sign that some of Washington’s strongest allies are growing more uneasy about Trump’s unpredictability. 

According to Professor Zhao Minghao, Washington’s recent policy moves, especially those on tariffs, Greenland and the war in Ukraine, “have triggered a wave among allies to recalibrate their policies to ‘de-risk’ from the United States.”

Yet, as flagged by Trump’s threat of a 100% tariff on all Canadian goods after Carney’s trade deal with China earlier this month, rapprochement with Beijing risks a rift with Washington.

Starmer’s UK critics claim his government is caving under pressure from Beijing and is naive about the threat China poses to Britain’s security. The UK’s approval of a 20,000 square-metre Chinese Embassy in London, they claim, will make it easier for China to conduct espionage and intimidate dissidents. The agreement to hand over the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean to Mauritius – a move the government says will ensure the future of a vital UK-US military base against legal challenge – opens the door to Chinese influence, critics say. Trump spoke out against the deal last week, having previously supported it. 

Chris Patten, governor of Hong Kong when the former British colony was handed back to China in 1997, has urged Starmer to be firm on human rights issues in his talks with the Chinese leadership. The Prime Minister, he says, should make clear London’s disagreements about the treatment of China’s Uyghur minority and the imprisonment of Jimmy Lai, the Hong Kong pro-democracy campaigner and British citizen.  “They know we’re different, but they want to have a reasonable relationship with us and, particularly given the state of the world with Trump, we should want to have a reasonable relationship with them,” Patten said.

This article used information from The Associated Press.