PM aims to reset ties with Xi at G20 summit

Keir Starmer will today become the first UK prime minister in six years to meet the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, as he promises to turn the page on UK-China relations and build "a pragmatic and serious relationship".

- Jessica Elgot

Starmer and the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, have been pursuing a thawing of relations with the world's second largest economy, suggesting the UK cannot achieve its growth ambitions without being on better terms with China.

But the move to deepen ties, with a meeting at the G20 leaders' summit in Brazil, is likely to be controversial among human rights groups and backbenchers. Several high-profile Conservative MPs have had sanctions imposed on them by China.

Tom Tugendhat and Alicia Kearns, both prominent Tory critics of China, called on Starmer to use the meeting to raise with Xi the plight of UK nationals including Jimmy Lai, the pro-democracy media owner detained in Hong Kong.

Starmer will meet the Chinese president at the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, a meeting of world leaders that is likely to be marked by divisions over the climate crisis and Ukraine.

No British prime minister has met Xi since Theresa May visited Beijing in 2018 amid a trade push during Brexit negotiations, though Boris Johnson spoke to the Chinese president during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Since then, relations have significantly cooled over cyberthreats, a human rights crackdown in Hong Kong and sanctions against UK MPs.

Rishi Sunak attempted to renew relations at the G20 summit in 2022 where a bilateral was planned - but it was cancelled due to developments in Ukraine. Conservative leaders have also toyed with designating China a threat to British security, stronger language than the US had used.