The United Kingdom secured only small concessions and modest investments during the first trip to China by a prime minister in eight years. Trying to show some independence from the United States, Prime Minister Keir Starmer instead underscored the importance of sticking together for both sides of the Atlantic.
Walking the red carpet chummily with President Xi Jinping, the optics for Starmer mirrored Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s recent visit. Both sought to normalize bilateral relations with the world’s second largest economy. President Donald Trump reacted angrily each time. He described Starmer’s dealings as “very dangerous” and has threatened to impose 100 percent tariffs on Canadian products if Carney finalizes a “deal” with Xi.
The truth is that these trips are the inevitable consequence of the leader of the world’s largest economy treating its closest allies so poorly. Despite being members of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing partnership, the U.K. and Canada feel compelled to diversify their economic partnerships. Trump has signaled that each country should act purely in its own self-interest, and he’s also moving to negotiate a grand bargain of his own with Xi. That makes it harder to credibly criticize his counterparts.
Another hard truth is that the Brits are gaining little for what they’re giving up. China agreed to halve whisky tariffs, a move estimated to be worth £250 million for the U.K. over the next five years. The U.K.-Swiss pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca will invest $15 billion into China by 2030. U.K. energy supplier Octopus Energy will enter the Chinese market. That’s millions flowing Britain’s way and billions flowing China’s way.
That’s a repeat from when Starmer dispatched Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves on a similar trip last year. She returned with just £600 million of pledged investment from China — over the course of five years.
In addition to 30-day, visa-free travel for Britons, Starmer got China to lift sanctions on six current members of parliament and peers in the House of Lords. The affected politicians, who were targeted after speaking out about China’s human rights atrocities against Muslim Uyghurs, say they “take no comfort” in the relief, especially while other Britons remain subject to them. “Selective lifting of sanctions solely on sitting parliamentarians is wrong,” they said. Human rights groups also condemned the visit at a time when British citizen Jimmy Lai unjustly serves a life sentence in Hong Kong for supporting pro-democracy protests in 2019.
The U.K., which is forecast to have lackluster growth rates well under 2 percent, needs every economic boost it can get. Starmer’s struggling Labour government is in no position to pass on mutually beneficial trading and investment opportunities. “I’m a pragmatist,” the prime minister told reporters in Beijing. But the enthusiasm he and Carney expressed on their trips does not reflect the details of what they secured. When China is trying to divide and conquer the West, pragmatism looks a lot more like capitulation.
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