Mark my words: Starmer is set to approve China’s ‘super embassy’ |
Keir Starmer is set to travel to China and has appealed for business leaders to accompany him. You don’t do that if you’re anticipating holding a foreign government to account, says Eliot Wilson
At the end of this month, Sir Keir Starmer is due to travel to China for the first visit by a British prime minister since Theresa May in 2018. The ground has been thoroughly prepared: Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves, David Lammy (when foreign secretary), business and trade secretary Peter Kyle and Ed Miliband, energy secretary, have all gone east in the 18 months since Labour came to power.
The UK’s relationship with China is currently fraught by several issues. The People’s Republic is awaiting, increasing impatiently, a much-delayed ministerial decision on its proposed new embassy at Royal Mint Court in east London; 78-year-old Hong Kong businessman Jimmy Lai, a British national, is awaiting sentence after being convicted of national security offences by the Hong Kong High Court and is said to be in poor health; and ministers are still smarting after the collapse of the trial of two British citizens accused of spying for China.
Still, you may think, after a year and a half in office, Labour would have a clear, coherent and practical policy governing its engagement with Beijing. After all, its 2024 manifesto promised an “audit of our bilateral........