UK PM seeks to reset China ties and cut reliance on Washington in first visit by a British leader in eight years
\n london
\nPrime Minister Keir Starmer will fly to China on Tuesday evening on the first visit by a British leader in eight years, seeking to mend ties with the world\u2019s second-largest economy and reduce his country\u2019s dependence on an increasingly unpredictable United States.
\nStarmer is the latest in a series of Western leaders to travel to Beijing. His visit comes amid tension between Britain and its longstanding close ally, the United States, over President Donald Trump\u2019s recent threats to take control of Greenland and other remarks.
\nOn a three-day visit accompanied by dozens of business executives and two ministers, Starmer will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang in Beijing and then travel to Shanghai, before a brief visit to Japan.
\nAt the forefront of the visit \u201cwill be what both sides make of the current behaviour and posture of the U.S. and Trump,\u201d said Kerry Brown, professor of Chinese studies at King\u2019s College London.
\n\u201cOne of the great anomalies of the current situation is that London is probably closer to Beijing than Washington\u201d on some global issues like AI, public health and the environment.
\nSince being elected in 2024, Starmer has made it one of his priorities to reset ties with China following a deterioration in relations under previous governments because of rows over Beijing\u2019s crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, a former British colony, and multiple allegations of espionage and cyberattacks.
\nThe visit gives China a chance to court another U.S. ally dealing with Trump\u2019s volatile trade policies, following that of Canada\u2019s Prime Minister Mark Carney this month, when the two countries agreed on an economic deal.
\nIn response to Carney\u2019s visit, Trump threatened to impose 100% tariffs\u2013effectively an embargo\u2013on all Canadian goods and products coming into the U.S. if it follows through on the China trade deal.
\nChina sees the trip as a chance to open a \u201cnew chapter in the healthy and stable development of China-UK relations\u201d, including deepening practical cooperation, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said.
\nChina\u2019s commerce ministry said that trade and investment deals are expected to be signed during the visit.
\nWestern leaders have had mixed results from their recent visits. While Carney struck a deal there that will slash tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and Canadian canola oil, French President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s visit in December yielded relatively few economic benefits.
\nBritain wants closer economic and trade ties with China to help Starmer honour his pledge to improve living standards through investment in public services and the economy. The strategy has drawn fierce criticism from some British and U.S. politicians.
\nIn the 12 months to the middle of 2025, China was Britain\u2019s fourth-largest trading partner, with trade totalling about 100 billion pounds ($137 billion), according to government data.
\nAmong those travelling with Starmer to China as part of the business delegation will be Brendan Nelson, the chairman of HSBC, and AstraZeneca\u2019s CEO Pascal Soriot, according to sources.
\nSam Goodman, a policy director at the China Strategic Risks Institute think tank in London, said that Britain had so far secured few economic gains from trying to improve relations with Beijing and that it would struggle to replace its economic dependence on the United States.
\nChina accounts for 0.2% of foreign direct investment in Britain, while the United States accounts for about a third, and Britain\u2019s market share for goods and services with China fell in the last year, he said.
\n\u201cWe have had a lot of concentrated engagement with this government on China, and the real question from this trip is what was it for?\u201d, he said. \u201cAre there tangible outcomes that really point to meaningful growth in the British economy?\u201d
\nStarmer\u2019s visit comes after his government approved China\u2019s contested plans to build a mega-embassy in the heart of London, rejecting the objections from some politicians who said the new building will make it easier for China to conduct spying operations.
\nHe laid the foundations for his trip last month when he said that China poses national security threats to Britain but that closer business ties were in the national interest.
\nThe visit also comes at a sensitive moment for relations between Western leaders and the United States because of Trump\u2019s claims that the United States needs to take control of Greenland because China poses a threat in the Arctic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UK PM seeks to reset China ties and cut reliance on Washington in first visit by a British leader in eight years london Prime Minister Keir Starmer will fly to China on Tuesday evening on the first visit by a British leader in eight years, seeking to mend ties with the world\u2019s second-largest economy and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528294,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-528261","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n