London (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Sir Keir Starmer is ready to become the first UK prime minister in six years to hold talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, promising to rebuild ties on “a pragmatic relationship” at the G20 summit in Brazil.
The British prime minister’s office confirmed on Saturday that Sir Keir Starmer will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping during the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro.
Keir Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves are encouraging improved relations with the world’s second-largest economy, China, claiming that the UK’s growth goals require stronger relations with China.
Developing strong ties with China could spark controversy and backslash from human rights groups, backbenchers and Conservative MPs targeted by Beijing’s sanctions.
Two prominent Conservative critics of China, Tom Tugendhat and Alicia Kearns, urged Starmer to use his meeting with Xi Jinping to highlight the issue of detained UK nations, including pro-democracy media mogul Jimmy Lai, currently facing trial in Hong Kong.
Tugendhat said, “It is essential that Starmer raises Mr Lai’s case and the threats we are witnessing against other British nationals who have spoken out who are now here in the UK. Starmer must clearly defend Britain against Beijing’s authoritarian regime”.
The shadow foreign minister, Alicia Kearns, stated, “The sham trial of British citizen Jimmy Lai recommences on Wednesday, yet it is glaringly absent from Starmer’s comments. British interests are achieved by being set out clearly, not as ‘by the ways’ cast to the sidelines of discussions. Starmer needs to call for Jimmy’s release now, and be unequivocal with Xi Jinping”.
Mr Theresa was the last UK prime minister to meet Xi Jinping in 2018, though Boris Johnson did speak with the Chinese president during the Covid-19.
Since then relations have significantly cooled due to cyber threats, Hong Kong’s human rights crackdown and sanctions on British MPs.
Former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak attempted to rebuild relations with China at the 2022 G20 summit, but the scheduled bilateral was cancelled due to Ukraine’s developments. Conservative members have debated declaring China a security threat to Britain using a sharper tone than that of the US.
The G20 summit consists of 19 countries with the largest global economies, including the African Union and the European Union.
Tom Tugendhat, Nusrat Ghani, and Iain Duncan Smith are among those individuals targeted by Chinese sanctions imposed by China including the ex-security minister, Commons deputy speaker and the former Conservative leader.
David Lammy, the UK’s foreign minister visited China last month and signals that the new Labour government is focused on improving and renewing ties with China.
Before he met with Xi, Keir Starmer aimed to address concerns about the summit, which included world leaders who were facing potential electoral defeat. Russia’s president is not attending the summit, his foreign secretary, Sergei Lavrov will be attending the summit in Brazil.
Sir Keir Starmer said, “It is in the UK’s best interests to engage on the global stage – whether that’s building strong and fruitful partnerships with our closest allies or being frank with those whose values differ from our own”.
The British prime minister is scheduled to hold one-on-one meetings with at least eight world leaders in Rio de Janeiro.
While speaking to reporters on a flight to Brazil, Sir Keir told reporters that the UK and China were “We are both global players, global powers, both permanent members of the security council and of the G20. China’s economy is obviously the second biggest in the world”.
He added, “It’s one of our biggest trading partners and therefore I will be having serious, pragmatic discussions with the president when I meet him”.
When asked if the goal was to improve relations with the Conservative government, he replied, “I do think it’s important that we have serious engagement, which is what I will be pursuing in my bilateral at the G20”.
According to No 10, any change in relations would be “rooted at all times in the UK’s national interests” but would recognize “clear areas of mutual cooperation – including on international stability, climate and growth”.
Sir Keir countered claims that the G20 meeting would lack purpose due to extreme divisions between leaders on topics like Ukraine, taxation, economy, climate and gender equality. However, the talks on Ukraine and Gaza are expected to be minimal.
He stated, “We’re meeting the biggest economies in the world in the next few days and my No 1 mission is to grow our economy and to get inward investment into our country. So I’m going to use that opportunity at the G20 to do exactly that”.
While the duo spoke on the phone in August, Starmer conveyed to Xi that the UK and China must openly address their differences while working on close economic relations. In turn, Xi expressed a hope that Britain would treat China “objectively and rationally”.
Downing Street announced that the prime minister’s priorities at the G20 summit would include driving economic growth and security, accelerating the climate transition and supporting the economic development of developing nations during the summit.