British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is set to arrive in Beijing on Wednesday evening (Jan 28) for a high-profile visit aimed at rebuilding political and economic ties with China, as uncertainty in relations between Western countries and the United States pushes allies to diversify their diplomatic and commercial partnerships.
Speaking to reporters aboard the plane to China, Starmer said Britain could not afford to overlook the economic opportunities offered by the world’s second-largest economy, even as it remained alert to potential security risks. The trip marks the first visit by a British leader to China since 2018 and signals a possible recalibration after years of strained relations.
“It doesn’t make sense to stick our head in the ground and bury it in the sand when it comes to China,” Starmer said. “It’s in our interests to engage. It’s going to be a really important trip for us and we’ll make some real progress.”
Starmer is travelling with a delegation of more than 50 senior business leaders, underscoring the commercial focus of the visit. He is scheduled to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Qiang in Beijing on Thursday, before heading to Shanghai on Friday for discussions with local executives and investors.
The visit comes after years of deep acrimony between London and Beijing, fuelled by China’s crackdown on political freedoms in Hong Kong, Beijing’s close alignment with Russia during the Ukraine war, and repeated allegations by British security services that China has engaged in espionage targeting politicians, academics and officials. Successive British governments had adopted a more confrontational tone, placing China firmly in the category of a “systemic challenge.”
For China, Starmer’s visit offers an opportunity to present itself as a stable and reliable partner at a time of mounting global disorder and growing friction within the Western alliance. Beijing has recently stepped up outreach to European and middle-power nations as they hedge against the unpredictability of U.S. policy.
Starmer’s trip follows a flurry of diplomatic engagement between Western capitals and China, driven in part by tensions with U.S. President Donald Trump. Relations between London and Washington have been strained in recent weeks by Trump’s threats to seize Greenland, his criticism of Britain’s agreement to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Archipelago — home to a key U.S.-UK military base — to Mauritius, and his remarks accusing NATO allies of avoiding frontline combat during the war in Afghanistan.
The British leader will arrive in China just days after Trump threatened to impose a 100 per cent tariff on Canadian goods if Prime Minister Mark Carney signed a trade agreement with Beijing. Despite this, Starmer insisted that Britain could expand economic engagement with China without jeopardising its close ties with the United States.
“The relationship we have with the US is one of the closest relationships we hold — on defence, security, intelligence and also on trade and lots of areas,” he said.
Starmer was cautious about detailing the substance of his talks with Chinese leaders. He declined to say whether he would raise the case of Jimmy Lai, the former Hong Kong media tycoon convicted in December under China’s national security law, or press Beijing to use its influence to end the war in Ukraine. Asked about the possibility of expanding visa-free travel between the two countries, he said he hoped to make “some progress.”
Defending his decision to visit China, Starmer argued that engagement was essential to delivering his core domestic priorities, including boosting economic growth and improving living standards in Britain. However, the approach has drawn sharp criticism from some British and U.S. politicians, who accuse him of underestimating the long-term security risks posed by Beijing.
Starmer also distanced himself from comments made by Carney at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, where the Canadian leader declared the rules-based global order to be effectively over and urged middle powers to band together against what he described as American hegemony.
“I’m a pragmatist, a British pragmatist applying common sense,” Starmer said, rejecting the notion that Britain must choose between the United States and Europe — or disengage from China altogether — as global power dynamics continue to shift.
