Starmer tells Xi Jinping during Beijing meeting that it has been ‘too long’ since a British PM has visited China.
Full report: Xi says he hopes China and UK can ‘rise above differences’
For more context on today’s Starmer-Xi meeting, China is the world’s second-biggest economy and Britain’s third-largest trading partner – to which it exports £45bn of goods and services a year – so it is no surprise the UK has turned to Beijing in its search for economic reliability.
As the Guardian’s political editor Pippa Crerar reported earlier today, the UK does not rank among the top 10 of China’s trading partners but the Beijing leadership has spied a political opportunity to improve links with one of Washington’s closest allies at a time of deep uncertainty in the transatlantic alliance.
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Source link : https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2026/jan/29/starmer-xi-jinping-meeting-uk-china-relationship-live
Author : Andrew Sparrow (now); Taz Ali, Siraj Datoo and Adam Fulton (earlier)
Publish date : 2026-01-29 08:29:00
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