Starmer meets Xi in historic visit to Beijing

Keir Starmer will meet the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, today for historic talks he hopes will deepen economic ties with the superpower at a time when some inside the government fear the US is no longer a reliable partner.

- Pippa Crerar

The prime minister - the first UK leader to visit China in eight years - will hold a 40-minute meeting with Xi at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing before a number of cultural and business receptions. On the flight to Beijing, Starmer told journalists he wanted to bring “stability and clarity” to the relationship after years of what he described as “inconsistency” under the Tories when it went from “golden age to ice age”.

As the world’s second biggest economy, and the UK’s third largest trading partner, to which it exports £45bn of goods and services a year, it is no surprise that the UK has turned to China in its search for economic reliability. Although the UK does not even make the top 10 of China’s trading partners, the Beijing leadership has spied a political opportunity of its own to improve links with one of the US’s closest allies ata time of deep uncertainty in the transatlantic alliance.

Starmer, who is also scheduled to meet the Chinese premier, Li Qiang, today, is going into the talks insisting heis “clear eyed” about the threat China poses to the UK’snational secutity, with Downing Street saying that he would have “guardrails” in place to protect against espionage.

He has vowed to raise difficult human rights issues, such as the case of Jimmy Lai, the former media tycoon and one of Hong Kong’smost significant pro-democracy voices, with the UK government pressing for his release from prison.

Tory hawks have criticised the prime minister for pursuing a thaw inrelations, after China was accused. of trying to recruit informants in parliament, harass Hong Kong prodemocracy activists in the UK and engage in cyber-attacks.