The British Prime Minister, Keir Starmerremains committed to forging trade alliances with the main world powers despite the protectionist threat of the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump. The latest example of this strategy occurred this Monday in the bilateral meeting he held with the president of China, Xi Jinpingwithin the framework of the G-20 summit that is being held in Rio de Janeiro. Starmer has made clear his desire to strengthen ties with Beijing on economic, energy and climate matters, despite the great geopolitical discrepancies and the growing violations of human rights by the Asian giant.
“A strong relationship between the UK and China is important for both countries and the international community. We want this relationship sea consistent, durable, respectful and, as we agreed, to avoid surprises whenever possible. A stronger dialogue must lead to better understanding,” Starmer said in the meeting with the Chinese leader. “I am very pleased that our ministers are starting to work on priority areas like the economy and tradestrategic issues, climate and energy. We want greater commitment in scientific, technological and security, health and development matters,” he added.
Economic approach
This Monday was the first meeting of a British Prime Minister with Xi Jinping since 2018something that represents a new example of Starmer’s willingness to attract investments foreigners and to accelerate the economic growth. China is the sixth largest market for exports British with a total value of 33,000 million pounds (39,000 million euros), which represents a 60% increase compared to 2014. The Labor Government wants this volume to continue growing in the coming years and is oiling all the machinery to achieve this: the Minister of Finance, Rachel Reevesplans to visit Beijing next year, while the Foreign Minister, David Lammyalready did it last October.
All despite the clear differences that the two countries continue to maintain in geopolitical matters and in the protection of human rights. Starmer has expressed concern about China’s growing military threat to Taiwan and its growing influence over the South Pacific islands, as well as the persecution of free speech advocates in Hong Kong. One of them, Jimmy Lai –founder and editor of the ‘Apple Daily’ newspaper–, faces life imprisonment for alleged “conspiracy” and “collusion with foreign forces” after the entry into force of the national security law in the former British colony in 2020. The trial against the journalist, who has British nationality, will resume this week despite requests from his family and organizations such as Reporters Without Borders for him to be released.
Opposition criticism
Some members of the opposition have criticized the approach to China by Starmer, who has chosen to maintain a very different position from that of his predecessors: both Boris Johnson as Liz Truss y Rishi Sunak were very critical of Beijing in his stages at the head of successive conservative governments. Some stages marked by scandals such as the alleged infiltration of Chinese spies into the british parliament or the alleged launch of cyberattacks against the country’s main institutions. “People suffering genocide and slavery under Xi’s brutal hands they will feel betrayed“, the former leader of the Conservative Party told the ‘Daily Mail’ Iain Duncan Smithone of the most belligerent members of Parliament with the Chinese regime.
Despite the criticism, Starmer seems determined to change the approach of his predecessors and open a new commercial and diplomatic route with Beijing. “The Prime Minister has stressed that, as G-20 countries and members of the UN Security Council, the United Kingdom and China have the shared responsibility to work together towards world stabilityeconomic cooperation and the transition to clean energy,” Downing Street spokespersons said in a statement. For the new Labor leader, rapprochement with the Asian giant represents, at least for now, more advantages than disadvantages.
