Keir Starmer tells Xi Jinping UK wants more ‘sophisticated’ relationship with China

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Sir Keir Starmer told Xi Jinping that he wants a “more sophisticated” relationship with China as the two leaders met in Beijing seeking to patch up ties strained by years of spying scandals and geopolitical tensions.

Stressing the economic benefits of an improved relationship with China, Starmer, the first UK prime minister to visit the country in eight years, told Xi on Thursday that “China is a vital player on the global stage and it is vital that we build a more sophisticated relationship”.

The Chinese president in his opening remarks took a veiled swipe at Britain’s opposition Conservative Party, which has criticised Starmer’s trip to Beijing and which fiercely opposed his Labour government’s approval this month of Beijing’s new super-embassy in London.

Xi told Starmer that “China-UK relations went through some twists and turns that did not serve the interests of our countries”.

“In the past, Labour governments made important contributions to the growth of China-UK relations,” he said.

The meeting lasted for 80 minutes. Starmer is expected to sign a pact with Xi to share intelligence to tackle people-trafficking gangs and to work together to curtail the supply of the Chinese-made small boat engines used in Channel crossings.

The last Conservative government put relations with China on ice, and the party’s current leader Kemi Badenoch said she would not have gone to Beijing. She has called the new Chinese embassy in London a “spy hub”.

China has sought to exploit a growing rupture in the west following Donald Trump’s threat to seize Greenland and renewed threats of tariffs towards US allies including Britain.

Xi presented the UK and China as partners in pursuit of “world peace”, saying more dialogue was “imperative” amid “turbulent and fluid” global affairs.

He added that the two men would “stand the test of history” if they could “rise above differences” between their countries.

“As leaders, we should not shy away from difficulties and we should press ahead fortitude,” Xi said. He also quoted a Chinese proverb, saying: “Range far your eye over long distances.”

Mentioning the lunar new year next month, he said Starmer’s visit was “a sign of auspiciousness”.

For the UK, the summit offers a chance to improve trade ties, while for Beijing, it is an opportunity to repair frosty relations with traditional US allies angered by China’s tacit support for Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and its soaring trade imbalances.

Chinese state media have given generous coverage to the Starmer trip, which follows a visit by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney earlier this month.

State-run media outlet China News wrote that behind “the wave of [western allies] going to China, there are both push and pull factors”.

“The United States’ recent hegemonic moves are the ‘push’ behind this trend . . . China’s continued provision of stability and certainty to the world is the ‘pull’ that attracts countries,” it said.

Earlier on Thursday, Starmer met Zhao Leji, the head of China’s rubber-stamp parliament. He is also due to meet China’s second-ranked official, Premier Li Qiang, in the afternoon along with business leaders from both countries.

Downing Street said that, under a border-security pact, UK teams would work with Chinese authorities to prevent small boat engines and equipment used in Channel crossings getting into the hands of criminal gangs. 

Number 10 said the plan included intelligence sharing to identify smugglers’ supply routes and working with Chinese manufacturers to prevent businesses from being exploited.