Britain’s prime minister Keir Starmer has hailed a strengthening of his country’s relationship with China following meetings in Beijing with Xi Jinping and other leading figures in the Communist Party.
China agreed to allow British citizens to visit the country for 30 days without a visa, a privilege already enjoyed by about 50 countries including Ireland, and cut the duty on scotch whiskey from 10 per cent to 5 per cent.
Mr Starmer is the latest in a succession of western leaders to visit Beijing since the start of this year, including Canada’s Mark Carney, Finland’s Alexander Stubb and the Taoiseach Micheál Martin.
Their visits come against a backdrop of anxiety over the future of the western alliance in the light of president Donald Trump’s demand that Denmark should cede Greenland to the United States.
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Mr Starmer is the first British prime minister to visit China in eight years and the bilateral relationship has deteriorated since Britain left the European Union in 2016.
“It is with the British people in mind that I am here today. I made the promise 18 months ago when we were elected into government that I would make Britain face outwards again,” Mr Starmer said.
“Because as we all know, events abroad affect everything that happens back in our home countries, from prices on the supermarket shelves to how secure we feel.”
China hopes that western countries will recognise that Beijing is a more reliable trading partner than Washington and Mr Xi told Mr Starmer that mutual trust was the foundation for the development of relationship between countries.
“China has always adhered to the path of peaceful development, has never initiated a war and has never occupied an inch of another country’s territory. No matter how much China develops and grows stronger, it will not pose a threat to other countries,” Mr Xi said, according to the Chinese readout of the meeting.
“International law is only truly effective when all countries abide by it, and major powers, in particular, must take the lead; otherwise, they will regress to a jungle-like world.”
Mr Starmer, who was accompanied by 50 business representatives, gave Mr Xi a present of a football that had been used in a match between Arsenal and Manchester United. Mr Starmer is an Arsenal fan and Xi, who has been passionate about football all his life, is a fan of Manchester United.
Mr Starmer told reporters after the meeting that he had raised human rights issues, including the conviction of former media owner Jimmy Lai under Hong Kong’s national security law and the treatment of the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang. But most of the focus during his visit is on restoring the economic relationship between Britain and China.
“It was a real strengthening of the relationship and that’s in the national interest because, of course, there are huge opportunities here in China. A lot of the discussion was about how we open up access for those opportunities, focusing, as I always do, on how this is going to be delivered back in the United Kingdom, how does it benefit people back at home,” Mr Starmer said.
Although the relationship between Beijing and London enjoyed a “golden age” under David Cameron, subsequent Conservative leaders have been hostile towards China. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said she would not have gone to Beijing and her shadow home secretary Chris Philp criticised Starmer.
“Keir Starmer has gone to Beijing to kowtow to president Xi, in the hope to get a few economic crumbs from president Xi’s table, to make up for the catastrophic handling of the economy, and he’s trading off our national security in order to do that,” he said.
