UK leader Starmer set to visit China to boost trade ties
Greenland, Ukraine shadows loom over PM's focus on economy
LONDON -- U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer will visit China this week in the first trip by a British leader since 2018, as London seeks stronger trade ties with the world's second-largest economy to revive sluggish domestic growth.
Starmer's visit -- which will include a stop in Tokyo on the way back -- is taking place a week after his government approved a controversial plan by China to build its largest diplomatic mission in Europe in London's financial district, despite espionage concerns raised by local residents and the White House.
The decision on the "super embassy" proposal had been delayed for months, with Starmer's visit to China and permission to expand the British embassy in Beijing understood to be contingent on the outcome.
A government spokesperson told reporters that security issues had been resolved and described the decision as "a normal part of international diplomatic relations."
"Those who don't accept this basic premise are either naive or recklessly isolationist," the spokesperson added.
A Reuters report said last week that Starmer will be bring a delegation comprising officials from BP, HSBC, Intercontinental Hotels Group, Jaguar Land Rover and Rolls-Royce to join a UK-China CEO council. The Chinese side will be accompanied by officials from banks and electric vehicle maker BYD, among others.
Since taking office in July 2024, the Labour government has sent five ministers to Beijing in an effort to stabilize relations after years of strained diplomatic ties over national security concerns and China's crackdown on democratic freedoms in Hong Kong.
In a speech setting out his approach to Beijing in December, Starmer insisted that protecting national security was nonnegotiable but argued "by taking tough steps to keep us secure, we enable ourselves to cooperate in other areas."
He described the lack of engagement with China under the previous Conservative government as "staggering" and sought to reassure businesses that investment is welcomed in noncritical sectors, citing financial and professional services, creative industries, pharmaceuticals and luxury goods.
"The primary aim of the trip is growth at all costs," said Sam Goodman, senior policy director at the China Strategic Risks Institute. "They want investment agreements into the U.K., purchases of U.K. goods and joint ventures -- all of which they hope will move the needle on growth."
Britain's economy is barely in the black and Starmer's deeply unpopular government will be hoping that a good trip outcome will give it some reprieve. The auto sector is expected to be a focus in discussions, with British media reporting that Chinese brands Chery and Geely are considering investing in the country.
"If Starmer can announce a BYD or Chery plant in the U.K., he'll be happy," Goodman said, cautioning that nonbinding agreements have failed to yield concrete financial commitments in the past.
In early 2025, the two sides revived the U.K.-China Economic and Financial Dialogue for the first time in six years, agreeing a package of measures worth about 600 million pounds ($806 million) to the British economy, including cooperation on renminbi bond issuance in London and green finance.
"Financial services, asset management and capital markets are areas where engagement is possible and, to some extent, mutually beneficial," said Sam Olsen, chief analyst at Sibylline.
But Olsen also said there was a ceiling on how far the bilateral economic relationship can expand, because "the U.K. simply does not produce at scale the goods or technologies that China most wants or needs."
That skepticism is shared by Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute, who said expectations that China's size alone could drive U.K. growth had repeatedly failed to materialize. "This belief goes back to the Victorian era," he said. "There is no reason to assume that longstanding pattern is about to change."
Over the past two decades, diplomatic ties between the U.K. and China had swung from periods of tension, such as when former Prime Minister David Cameron met the Dalai Lama, to the subsequent "golden era" of engagement. Yet, economic ties had largely remained the same, Tsang observed.
"Beijing acts on its economic interests, despite its rhetoric," Tsang said.
Recent visits to Beijing by Western leaders from France, Spain, Italy, Germany and Ireland have fuelled discussion over whether an increasingly unsettled transatlantic relationship is making engagement with China more pressing for U.S. allies.
The U.K. and the European Union are also in a tricky position geopolitically, as they try to boost support for Ukraine against Russian invaders while the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is trying to force Denmark to give up Greenland. Yet, analysts say that leaning into China may not help.
"China's leverage over Russia is often overstated," Sibylline's Olsen said. "For the U.K., hedging against uncertainty about the United States would be better achieved by deepening cooperation with like-minded allies."
He cautioned that deeper economic exposure to China would increase the U.K.'s vulnerability in the event of a major geopolitical rupture between Washington and Beijing.
Tsang of the SOAS China Institute said that London also had some leverage over China. "The U.K. matters to China," he said, noting that Beijing sees Britain as one of Europe's most economically open partners, and the credibility London lent to the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
"Starmer should leverage what Beijing sees as the U.K.'s value," Tsang said, "rather than simply appeasing China."
Clement Ngu is a contributing writer. Additional reporting by Carla Messinger.