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Prime Minister Keir Starmer will fly to China on Tuesday, the first visit by a British leader in 8 years, in a bid to improve ties with the world's second-largest economy and reduce its dependence on the increasingly unpredictable United States.
Starmer is the latest Western leader to visit China, and his trip comes amid tensions between Britain and its longtime closest ally, the United States, over President Donald Trump's threats to take control of Greenland.
During a three-day visit accompanied by dozens of business leaders and two ministers, Starmer will meet with Chinese leaders in Beijing and then travel to Shanghai, before a short visit to Japan.
The focus of the visit “will be what both sides think about the current behavior and stance of the US and Trump,” said Kerry Brown, professor of Chinese studies at King’s College London. “One of the big anomalies of the current situation is that London is probably closer to Beijing than Washington” on some global issues such as artificial intelligence, public health and the environment.
Since being elected in 2024, Starmer has made it one of his priorities to restore ties with China after a deterioration in relations under previous governments due to disagreements over Beijing's suppression of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, a former British colony, and numerous accusations of espionage and cyberattacks.
The visit gives China a chance to woo another US ally grappling with Trump's erratic trade policies, following that of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney this month, when the two countries agreed to an economic deal.
In response to Carney's visit, Trump threatened to impose 100% tariffs, effectively an embargo, on all Canadian goods and products entering the US if the country implements the trade deal with China.
Beijing can be a reliable partner for countries because it supports a "multipolar world," the state-backed Chinese newspaper Global Times said on Monday.
But Western leaders have had mixed results from their recent visits. While Carney brokered a deal there that will lower tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles and Canadian canola oil, French President Emmanuel Macron's visit in December yielded relatively few economic benefits.
Britain wants closer economic and trade ties with China to help Starmer deliver on his promise to improve living standards through investment in public services and the economy. But the strategy has drawn sharp criticism from some British and American politicians.
In the 12 months to mid-2025, China was Britain's fourth-largest trading partner, with trade totalling around 100 billion pounds ($137 billion), according to government data.
Sam Goodman, a policy director at the China Strategic Risk Institute in London, said Britain had so far secured few economic benefits from trying to improve relations with Beijing.
China accounts for just 0.2% of foreign direct investment in Britain, while the United States accounts for about a third, and Britain's market share for goods and services with China fell last year, he said.
"We've had a lot of focused engagement with this government on China, and the real question from this trip is, 'What was it for?'" he said, adding, "are there tangible results that really show a significant boost to the British economy?"
US warns Canada over ties with China
Starmer's visit comes after his government approved China's disputed plans to build a mega-embassy in the heart of London, rejecting objections from some politicians who said the new building would make it easier for China to carry out espionage operations.
Starmer laid the groundwork for his trip last month when he said that China poses national security threats to Britain but that closer business ties were in the national interest.
The visit also comes at a sensitive time for relations between Western leaders and the United States due to Trump's claims that the United States should take control of Greenland because China poses a threat in the Arctic.
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