Starmer’s Chinese trip changes nothing |
I just had lunch with several European ambassadors and they asked me whether Keir Starmer’s trip to China was important or significant. My answer was that it was important but not significant.
Starmer has been given a respectable degree of pomp, will be able to point to multiple billions in Chinese investment in British firms and has today secured the lifting of Chinese state sanctions against British parliamentarians. Iain Duncan Smith, Tom Tugendhat and others will now be able to travel to China should they wish.
China got what it wanted – a massive new embassy near the Tower of London – having made clear Starmer would not be welcome in Beijing unless it was approved
Much of diplomacy is flummery and show, and at least Starmer was given the red carpet, rather than the cold shoulder which is sometimes the Chinese way – though there was something of a satirical drama about footage of the Prime Minister being greeted with an honour guard yesterday, where the lead........