PM is first UK leader to visit China in eight years and hopes to strengthen bond with superpower amid uncertainty over US alliance
Keir Starmer will meet the Chinese president Xi Jinping on Thursday for historic talks he hopes will deepen economic ties at a time when some inside government fear the US is no longer a reliable partner.
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 bilateral relations after years of “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 the UK has turned to China in its search for economic reliability.
