Starmer summons business chiefs to join China trip
Downing Street officials are asking business leaders to join Keir Starmer on a visit to China later this month, it has been reported, amid tensions over the approval of its mega embassy near Canada.
The government is still looking to gather new business representatives to accompany Starmer to Beijing despite some concerns over fractured diplomatic relations between the UK and the world’s second largest economy, according to Sky News.
It will be the first trip made by a Prime Minister to China since Theresa May visited the country in 2018 when new investment deals were announced.
The trip is expected to come after Davos, which is set to conclude on 23 January.
It will also follow the confirmation of whether China has its mega embassy at the Royal Mint Court site in central London approved.
The embassy application has come under scrutiny in recent months following the collapse of a Chinese spy case for two researchers.
Canada Corporation officials have told CityAM they were “nervous” about the threat China could pose to criticial infrastructure.
A decision on the new embassy is expected on 20 January.
Pressure on Starmer’s approach to China also intensified after reports, which included quoted comments from former Downing Street adviser Dominic Cummings, said China had accessed classified information.
Labour’s approach to China
China has also taken the opposite side to the UK and other Western powers in recent geopolitical issues.
The country’s officials condemned President Trump’s operation to capture former Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. Starmer has taken a more cautious line and refused to comment on whether it broke international law.
However, Starmer’s government has not pivoted on their stance on China as noted in the Labour Party manifesto in 2024.
The text described a commitment to “understand and respond to the challenges and opportunities China poses”, and to “co-operate where we can, compete where we need to, and challenge where we must”.
Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves have seen China as being crucial to advancing the government’s hopes of boosting investment and international trade.
Reeves and former foreign secretary David Lammy are among a number of senior officials to have visited China since the election while Starmer held a meeting with President Xi Jinping during a G20 meeting in Brazil.
Business chiefs frequently accompany the Prime Minister on foreign trips, with dozens flying with government officials to India to sign off the country’s trade deal.