When I spoke to a European journalist about British prime minister Keir Starmer’s visit to China at the end of January, they laughed about the controversy it had caused: “I mean, when most other leaders go to China, it’s taken as something they should do, rather than having to justify.” In the last few months, France, Canada, and soon South Korea and Germany, will all see high-level visits to Beijing without generating the levels of heat and discussion the British one has.
It is true that Britain has a very specific relationship with China which never makes for easy partnership. In the so-called narrative of “national humiliation” promoted by the Chinese government – covering the period over the 19th and 20th century when the country was partially colonised and, at times, invaded – Britain played a leading role..
Even so, these are events well predating living memory. In no way can China be seen as a victim today. Over the last half a century, it has transformed, overtaking the UK in almost every way, from the size of its economy to its military power and global influence. Even in the area of technology and innovation, it is now outpacing the UK.
Alamy/AP/Carl Court
Despite this, both sides seem to continue finding ways to argue with each other. Last year there was the furore over the claims of espionage made by the UK against two British nationals. They denied all charges and the case against them was dropped abruptly, after the Crown Prosecution Service decided the evidence did not show China was a threat to national security. This caused angry claims that the government was simply placating Beijing.
A similar situation occurred recently when, after much delay, the planned new embassy for China in London was finally given approval, eight years after the site was bought.
All of this preceded Starmer’s trip to Beijing. He landed to a fanfare of military guard trumpets, even as the main chorus back home was critical and dismissive. Conservative party leader Kemi Badenoch declared that his going was not in the national interest and that, were she in office, she would not have visited.
The brute reality is that in 2026, there are two very tangible and very urgent reasons why Britain and China need to talk to each other as never before. The first is the intensifying realisation that the US is no longer the stable, predictable partner it always was before this.
President Trump is raising daily questions about things that were once assumed to be relatively durable. His proposed foray into Greenland, while seemingly resolved in January, raised the real spectre of the US not just being in dispute with key allies but engaging in outright conflict.
For the first time ever, Britain and China are faced with the same problem – what to make of America’s behaviour, and what to do about it – even if this throws up respectively very different issues. For Starmer, the worry is about how to manage the UK’s greatest security partner as it, at times, no longer seems to want to secure so much as disrupt. For China, it is what to do about preserving its interests globally when an order once underpinned by the US is facing away.
Flickr/Number10, CC BY
But secondly, we have to return to the staggering speed and scale of China’s technology rise. For research and development in areas that matter to the UK, from environment to life sciences to AI, the risk of not engaging with Beijing is far higher than the alternative. This dramatic change doesn’t seem to be properly understood by many of the most critical domestic voices about Starmer’s visit, not least the politicians with the most hawkish views on China.
For those truly concerned about the UK’s security and national interest, the problem is not that a British prime minister has visited Beijing. Rather, it is that it has been eight years since the last time one did so.
The more Britain continues to bicker and argue even about straightforward contact, the less it will be able to work out how to navigate the new geopolitics – and what to do about a world where access to Chinese technology is not an option, but a necessity.
