Starmer Says Britain Wants ‘Sophisticated Relationship’ With China

‘The relationship is in a good place, a strong place,’ British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said after an 80-minute meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrives for a three-day visit in Beijing on Jan. 28, 2026. Carl Court/PA Wire

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he wants a “sophisticated relationship” with China after meeting Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing on Jan. 29.

The pair called for a “strategic partnership” to improve ties between the two countries.

“Working together on issues like climate change, global stability during challenging times for the world is precisely what we should be doing,” Starmer told Xi at the start of their 80-minute meeting in Beijing.

Xi said that the relations between the two countries had experienced setbacks in the previous years, and he said that the two countries need to strengthen cooperation for world peace and stability.

Starmer’s Downing Street office said Britain wanted “a consistent, long-term, and strategic partnership that will benefit both countries.”

“The relationship is in a good place, a strong place,” the British leader said.

Relations between Britain and China have been strained in recent years, partly because of Chinese repression in the former British colony of Hong Kong and partly as a result of evidence of increased spying and transnational repression by Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials in the UK.

“The Chinese intelligence services are highly capable and conduct large-scale espionage operations against the UK to advance the Chinese state’s interests and harm the interests and security of the UK,” Starmer’s deputy national security adviser, Matt Collins, said in a witness statement in August 2025.

But on Jan. 20, Starmer’s government approved a new, significantly expanded Chinese Embassy in central London, which had been a matter of great controversy.

In November 2025, Bob Blackman, a Conservative member of Parliament, told The Epoch Times there had been instances in which the CCP had tried to capture Chinese nationals in the UK.

“That is why this super embassy is a real concern,” Blackman said. “There is ample space for dungeons. If they capture these Chinese nationals, it’s a real challenge.”

Victor Gao, a former Chinese regime adviser, told Times Radio on Oct. 19, 2025, that if the super embassy plan were rejected, the CCP would likely respond by rejecting plans for a $132 million rebuild of the British Embassy in Beijing.

Starmer and Xi are expected to sign several agreements this week, but it is unclear whether the rebuilding of the British Embassy in Beijing will be formally announced.

In December 2025, a Hong Kong court convicted Jimmy Lai, a former newspaper publisher and one of the territory’s most outspoken critics of China’s communist regime, under a national security law that was imposed by Beijing. Lai is a British citizen.

Merchandise in support of Jimmy Lai is displayed before a news conference in Washington, on Dec. 15, 2025. Julia Demaree Nikhinson /AP Photo

Starmer said he raised human rights issues with Xi and they had a “respectful discussion.”

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Jan. 22 that he will visit China in April and expects Xi to visit the United States later this year.

Trump said he has maintained a good relationship with Xi despite their countries’ differences on certain issues, citing the strained ties during the COVID-19 period amid disputes over the origin of the virus.

Starmer is the first British prime minister to visit China since Theresa May in 2018.

Talks About Whisky, Visas

After the meeting with Xi, Starmer said the pair had made “really good progress” on trade issues such as reducing Chinese tariffs on Scottish whisky and allowing British people to visit China without visas.

“The relationship is in a good place, a strong place,” Starmer said.

One of the deals due to be signed later on Jan. 29 is an agreement to disrupt the trade in Chinese boat engines that are used by human traffickers to bring illegal immigrants across the English Channel from France and Belgium.

The British government says more than half the engines are manufactured in China.

Under the agreement, the Chinese authorities agree to work with the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) and other law enforcement to prevent human traffickers from obtaining engines.

Earlier this month, a Turkish national, Adem Savas, was jailed for 11 years in the Belgian city of Bruges.

The NCA said Savas supplied thousands of boats and engines to human traffickers, including Kurdish organized crime boss Hewa Rahimpur.

The Associated Press and PA Media contributed to this report.