BEIJING: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer begins a three-day visit to China on Wednesday, where he will defend London&#39;s &quot;pragmatic&quot; partnership with the Asian giant after years of fraught relations. It is the first visit to Beijing by a UK prime minister since 2018 and follows a string of Western leaders courting Beijing in recent weeks, pivoting from a mercurial United States. Starmer will also make a brief stop in Japan to meet with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi. For Chinese President Xi Jinping, the trip is an opportunity to show Beijing can be a reliable partner at a time when President Donald Trump&#39;s policies have rattled historic ties between Washington and its Western allies. Starmer, who is battling record-low popularity polls and hopes the visit can boost Britain&#39;s beleaguered economy, is to arrive in Beijing around 09:30 GMT on Wednesday. He will meet with Xi for lunch on Thursday, followed by a meeting with Premier Li Qiang. The talks will touch upon &quot;trade, investment and national security,&quot; Downing Street said in a statement, with Starmer promising &quot;stability and clarity in the government&#39;s approach&quot;. Starmer said on Wednesday this visit to China was &quot;going to be a really important trip for us&quot;, vowing to make &quot;some real progress&quot;. There are &quot;opportunities&quot; to deepen bilateral relations, Starmer told reporters traveling with him on the plane to China. &quot;It doesn&#39;t make sense to stick our head in the ground and bury in the sand when it comes to China; it&#39;s in our interests to engage and not compromise on national security,&quot; he added. China, for its part, &quot;is willing to take this visit as an opportunity to enhance political mutual trust&quot;, foreign ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said ahead of the trip. Faced with Trump&#39;s threats to impose tariffs on Canada for signing a trade agreement with China, and the US president&#39;s attempts to create a new international institution with his &quot;Board of Peace&quot;, Beijing has been affirming its support for the United Nations to visiting leaders. Reset tiesUK-China relations plummeted in 2020 after Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law on Hong Kong, which severely curtailed freedoms in the former British colony. They soured further, with both powers exchanging accusations of spying. Starmer, however, was quick to deny fresh claims of Chinese spying after the Telegraph newspaper reported Monday that China had hacked the mobile phones of senior officials in Downing Street for several years. &quot;There&#39;s no evidence of that. We&#39;ve got robust schemes, security measures in place as you&#39;d expect,&quot; he told reporters on Wednesday. Since taking the helm in 2024, Starmer has been at pains to reset ties with the world&#39;s second-largest economy and Britain&#39;s third-biggest trade partner. In China, he will be accompanied by around 60 business leaders from the finance, pharmaceutical, automobile, and other sectors, and cultural representatives as he tries to balance attracting vital investment and appearing firm on national security concerns. The Labour leader also spoke to Xi on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Brazil in November 2024. Jimmy Lai&nbsp;The prime minister is also expected to raise the case of Hong Kong media mogul and democracy supporter Jimmy Lai, 78, a British national facing years in prison after being found guilty of collusion charges in December. When asked by reporters about his plans to discuss Lai&#39;s case, Starmer avoided specifics, but said engaging with Beijing was to ensure that &quot;issues where we disagree can be discussed&quot;. Reporters Without Borders urged Starmer in a letter to secure Lai&#39;s release during his visit. The British government has also faced fierce domestic opposition after it approved this month contentious plans for a new Chinese mega-embassy in London, which critics say could be used to spy on and harass dissidents.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer Keir Starmer delivering his first address as prime minister of the United Kingdom, 10 Downing Street, London, July 5, 2024. (FILE/Encyclopedia Britannica)

United Kingdom

China

In an effort to boost trade and reset strained ties, Britain’s prime minister travels to Beijing for talks with Chinese leaders, seeking investment and diplomatic engagement while balancing shifting global alliances.

Starmer lands in China to defend 'pragmatic' partnership

BEIJING: Canada&#39;s Prime Minister Mark Carney hailed a &quot;new strategic partnership&quot; with Beijing as he held talks with President Xi Jinping on Friday, marking the first visit by a Canadian leader to China in eight years. The two countries had been locked in years of diplomatic spats after the retaliatory arrests of each other&#39;s citizens and a series of tit-for-tat trade disputes. But Carney has sought to turn the page on the testy relations, in a bid to reduce reliance on the United States, its key economic partner, as President Donald Trump aggressively raised tariffs on Canadian products. Addressing Xi in the Great Hall of the People, Carney said that &quot;together we can build on the best of what this relationship has been in the past to create a new one adapted to new global realities&quot;. Engagement and cooperation would be &quot;the foundation of our new strategic partnership&quot;, he said. &quot;Agriculture, energy, finance, that&#39;s where we can make the most immediate progress.&quot; Welcoming Carney, Xi said China-Canada relations reached a turning point at their last meeting on the sidelines of the APEC summit in October. &quot;It can be said that our meeting last year opened a new chapter in turning China&ndash;Canada relations toward improvement,&quot; Xi told the Canadian leader. &quot;The healthy and stable development of China&ndash;Canada relations serves the common interests of our two countries,&quot; he said, adding he was &quot;glad&quot; to see discussions over the last few months to restore cooperation. &#39;Right track&#39;&nbsp;Ties between the two nations withered in 2018 over Canada&#39;s arrest of the daughter of Huawei&#39;s founder on a US warrant, and China&#39;s retaliatory detention of two Canadians on espionage charges. The two countries imposed tariffs on each other&#39;s exports in the years that ensued, with China also being accused of interfering in Canada&#39;s elections. But Carney has sought a pivot, and Beijing has also said it is willing to get relations back on &quot;the right track&quot;. The Canadian leader, who on Thursday met with Premier Li Qiang, is also scheduled to hold talks with business leaders to discuss trade. Canada, traditionally a staunch US ally, has been hit especially hard by Trump&#39;s steep tariffs on steel, aluminium, vehicles, and lumber. Washington&#39;s move has prompted Canada to seek business elsewhere. In October, Carney said Canada should double its non-US exports by 2035 to reduce reliance on the United States. But the United States remains far and away its largest market, buying around 75 percent of Canadian goods in 2024, according to Canadian government statistics. While Ottawa has stressed that China is Canada&#39;s second-largest market, it lags far behind, buying less than four percent of Canadian exports in 2024. Officials from both countries have been in talks to lower tariffs and boost bilateral trade, though an agreement has yet to be reached.

Chinese President Xi Jinping (C) attends a meeting with Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on January 16, 2026. (Photo by Vincent Thian / POOL / AFP)

Americas

Canada is seeking closer economic engagement with China after years of strained relations, as Mark Carney meets with Chinese leaders to expand trade, lower tariffs, and diversify exports away from their heavy reliance on the United States.

Articles tagged with "Partnership"

Starmer lands in China to defend 'pragmatic' partnership

Canada's Carney hails 'strategic partnership' in talks with Xi