UK's Starmer heads to China to repair ties as he navigates tensions with US

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer will fly to China on Tuesday on the first visit by a UK leader in eight years, in a bid to mend ties with the world’s second-largest economy and reduce its dependence on an increasingly unpredictable US.

Starmer is the latest western leader to visit China, and his trip comes amid tensions between UK and its longstanding closest ally – the US – over President Donald Trump’s threats to take control of Greenland.

On a three-day visit accompanied by dozens of business executives and two ministers, Starmer will meet with Chinese leaders in Beijing and then travel to Shanghai, before a brief visit to Japan.

At the forefront of the visit “will be what both sides make of the current behaviour and posture of the US. and Trump,” said Kerry Brown, professor of Chinese studies at King’s College London. “One of the great anomalies of the current situation is that London is probably closer to Beijing than Washington” on some global issues like AI, public health and the environment.

Since being elected in 2024, Starmer has made it one of his priorities to reset ties with China following a deterioration in relations under previous governments because of rows over Beijing’s crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, a former UK colony, and multiple allegations of espionage and cyberattacks.

BETTING ON CHINA TO BOOST BRITAIN’S ECONOMY

The visit gives China a chance to court another US. ally dealing with Trump’s volatile trade policies following that of Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney this month when the two countries agreed an economic deal.

In response to Carney’s visit, Trump threatened to impose 100% tariffs – effectively an embargo – on all Canadian goods and products coming into the US. if it follows through on the China trade deal.

Beijing can be a reliable partner for countries because it advocates for a “multipolar world”, the Chinese state-backed Global Times newspaper said on Monday.

But Western leaders have had mixed results from their recent visits. While Carney struck a deal there that will slash tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and Canadian canola oil, French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit in December yielded relatively few economic benefits.

UK wants closer economic and trade ties with China to help Starmer honour his pledge to improve living standards through investment in public services and the economy. But the strategy has drawn fierce criticism from some UK and US. politicians.

In the 12 months to the middle of 2025 China was Britain’s fourth-largest trading partner, with trade totalling about 100 billion pounds ($137 billion), according to government data.

Sam Goodman, a policy director at the China Strategic Risks Institute think tank in London, said UK had so far secured few economic gains from trying to improve relations with Beijing.

China only accounts for 0.2% of foreign direct investment in UK while the US accounts for about a third, and UK’s market share for goods and services with China fell in the last year, he said.

“We have had a lot of concentrated engagement with this government on China, and the real question from this trip is what was it for?”, he said. “Are there tangible outcomes that really point to meaningful growth in the UK economy?”

US WARNS CANADA OVER CHINA TIES

Starmer’s visit comes after his government approved China’s contested plans to build a mega-embassy in the heart of London, rejecting the objections from some politicians who said the new building will make it easier for China to conduct spying operations.

Starmer laid the foundations for his trip last month when he said that China poses national security threats to UK but that closer business ties were in the national interest.

The visit also comes at a sensitive moment for relations between Western leaders and the US because of Trump’s claims that the United States needs to take control of Greenland because China poses a threat in the Arctic.