BEIJING: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Thursday for high-level talks focused on strengthening trade ties while navigating sensitive issues including national security, human rights and migration.
The meeting at the Great Hall of the People marks the first visit to China by a UK prime minister in eight years and comes as several Western leaders seek closer engagement with Beijing, partly in response to an increasingly unpredictable United States.
Starmer, who described the visit as “historic,” said it offered an opportunity to “find positive ways to work together” in a challenging global environment. Chinese state media quoted senior official Zhao Leji, whom Starmer met earlier in the day, as saying bilateral relations were on “the correct track to improvement and development” despite a turbulent international landscape.
During his Beijing stop, Starmer is also expected to hold talks with Premier Li Qiang, before travelling to Shanghai on Friday and then making a brief visit to Japan, where he will meet Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, according to AFP.
Downing Street has framed the China trip as a bid to revive trade and investment, while ensuring that contentious issues are not sidelined. Britain and China are expected to sign a cooperation agreement targeting supply chains used by migrant smugglers, a politically sensitive issue for Starmer, who has pledged to crack down on people-smuggling networks amid rising domestic pressure over irregular migration.
Relations between London and Beijing enjoyed a “Golden Era” in the mid-2010s, but sharply deteriorated after 2020 following China’s imposition of a national security law in Hong Kong and the subsequent crackdown on pro-democracy activists.
Starmer is expected to raise the case of Jimmy Lai, the 78-year-old Hong Kong media mogul and democracy advocate who faces years in prison after being convicted on collusion charges in December.
Broader concerns — including alleged human rights abuses, cyber-espionage claims and China’s perceived support for Russia’s war in Ukraine — continue to strain ties.
Despite political frictions, China remains the UK’s third-largest trading partner, though British exports to China fell 52.6% year-on-year in 2025, according to official UK data. Reviving exports and attracting foreign investment are central to Labour’s economic agenda since Starmer took office in 2024.
The prime minister is accompanied by around 60 business leaders from finance, pharmaceuticals, automotive and other sectors, alongside cultural representatives, highlighting the commercial focus of the visit.
The trip also comes against the backdrop of a growing rift with Britain’s closest ally, the United States, following President Donald Trump’s controversial bid to seize Greenland and his brief threat of tariffs against Britain and other NATO allies — developments that have added urgency to London’s efforts to diversify its global partnerships.
