Diplomacy without the “Golden Era”
British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in the early hours of this morning (UK time) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, providing the diplomatic centerpiece of the prime minister’s first visit to China. President Xi called on both countries to “rise above their differences” in the interests of global peace and stability. The language was familiar and carefully calibrated. What matters now is less the symbolism of the encounter than what follows it.
With the formalities complete, Starmer’s challenge shifts from atmospherics to accountability. At home, voters will expect to see tangible benefits from any thaw in relations with Beijing—in trade, investment and economic opportunity—as well as clarity about the compromises such engagement entails. That tension sits at the heart of this visit, which represents the most significant attempt to reset UK–China relations since Theresa May travelled to Beijing in 2018.
The prime minister arrived in China with a large delegation, including the secretary of state for business and trade, highlighting the government’s emphasis on commercial engagement. Officially, the focus is trade and investment. In practice, the agenda is far broader and more politically charged, spanning economic resilience, diplomatic stability, and the future shape of engagement with a country that is simply too large, and too consequential, for a British prime minister to ignore.
Downing Street’s official readout of today’s Xi-Starmer bilateral meeting was polite and clinical:
"“They agreed they would continue to enhance co-operation on areas of mutual interest, while maintaining frank and open dialogue on areas of disagreement.”
Beyond meetings with senior Chinese leaders, the prime minister’s program includes engagements with British firms operating in China and efforts to reassert a credible UK diplomatic presence in Beijing. These are not decorative add-ons. They are intended to signal that the government is prepared to deal with China as it is, rather than as some in Westminster wish it to be. The message being tested on this visit is one of managed engagement: selective cooperation where interests align, coupled with firmer boundaries where they do not.
Early signals from the prime minister suggest a deliberately restrained, commercially focused approach. Addressing more than 50 UK CEOs travelling with him, Starmer emphasized the pursuit of practical progress on trade and investment, while again rejecting both a return to “golden age” rhetoric and any slide into an “ice age.” Economic engagement, he has stressed, must sit alongside the protection of national security.
Trade access, market barriers, and investment conditions are all under discussion, but so too are areas where friction is unavoidable, such as technology security, supply-chain dependencies, human rights concerns, and China’s increasingly assertive posture in the Indo-Pacific. With allies—particularly in Washington—watching closely, Starmer is keen to demonstrate that engagement does not mean indulgence.
Even so, the prime minister arrives having already absorbed domestic political costs. The UK’s approval of Beijing’s long-stalled plans for a new mega-embassy in London has been widely interpreted as the price of access, reinforcing a familiar asymmetry in dealings with China—concessions are often immediate and visible, while reciprocity can be incremental and uncertain. That reality is sharpened by developments within China itself, where President Xi has continued to consolidate power, highlighting the extent to which authority is centralized and policy tightly bound to his long-term strategic priorities.
This is the environment in which the prime minister is seeking progress—aware of the limits of influence, conscious of the optics, but equally mindful that disengagement is not a strategy. Once the China leg concludes, the prime minister will travel on to Japan, a deliberate contrast that underlines the UK’s parallel emphasis on trusted partnerships in the Indo-Pacific. Taken together, the trip reflects a central reality of his foreign policy: China cannot be wished away but must be handled with clear eyes and a steady sense of national interest.
Where progress is possible—and where it is not
With a large business delegation accompanying the prime minister and his colleagues, trade and investment will clearly be the central pillar of the visit. The government is under no illusions about the scale of the UK’s growth challenge, nor about the role that foreign capital—including Chinese investment—could play in supporting economic recovery. The message being taken to Beijing is a carefully calibrated one: the UK remains open to Chinese investment, but not indiscriminately.
Certain sectors of the UK economy are clearly off limits. Strategic technologies, defense-adjacent capabilities and critical national infrastructure will remain tightly protected. Elsewhere, however—including advanced manufacturing, green energy, life sciences, consumer markets, and selected infrastructure—the government is keen to encourage capital flows.
There is also scope for incremental progress on mobility and exchange. Negotiations have already led to the prime minister announcing that UK citizens will be able to travel visa-free to China for trips under 30 days. This, together with broader business mobility, academic exchange, and tourism all matter to both sides and sit below the geopolitical radar. Even modest easing in these areas will be politically low-cost, economically useful, and symbolically important in resetting the tone of the relationship.
Diplomatically, the British embassy in Beijing also looms large. Plans to expand the UK’s own diplomatic footprint in China have effectively been frozen for years, held hostage to the approval of China’s embassy in London. With that hurdle now cleared, the UK will be keen to move forward, strengthening its capacity on the ground in a country where sustained engagement and deep understanding are essential.
Some of the most sensitive issues on the prime minister’s agenda are unlikely to feature prominently in public discussions. UK government concerns relating to China—including strategic technology policy, industrial capacity pressures, security activity, and human rights issues—are expected to be raised privately. That is not a failure of diplomacy so much as a reflection of political reality of seeking to balance economic engagement with strategic caution.
The view from Edelman colleagues based in China
China views Prime Minister Starmer’s visit—the first by a UK leader in eight years—as a pivotal opportunity to stabilize and elevate bilateral ties. Beijing highlights the Labour Government’s stated commitment to developing a consistent, long-term, and strategic China–UK relationship and sees the visit as a moment to strengthen political trust and reinvigorate dialogue.
Chinese analysts note that the UK is arriving with an explicitly economic agenda, with “economic outcomes overriding all other priorities,” and point out that British companies have found engagement with China markedly easier since Labour took office. Beijing also places particular weight on concrete economic deliverables. China expects to sign trade and investment cooperation agreements aimed at creating new growth drivers, promoting complementarities, advancing the coordinated development of goods and services trade, and supporting two-way investment. Priority areas include green energy, healthcare and life sciences, creative industries, and intelligent manufacturing.
Financial cooperation is another focal point, with expectations for progress in regulatory coordination, London-Shanghai/Shenzhen stock market connectivity, and cross border data sharing issues. Chinese media also note the significance of the UK’s large, finance heavy business delegation—with senior figures from HSBC, Standard Chartered, Schroders and the London Stock Exchange Group—viewing it as a signal of renewed commercial confidence. While cooperation in health, climate, and cultural and language exchange is anticipated, Chinese media also acknowledge the UK’s interest in progress on whisky tariffs. In addition, Beijing is actively preparing for the 2026 China–UK Entrepreneur Committee meeting, with over 100 enterprises already registered.
Overall, China views the visit as economically driven, strategically significant, and an opportunity to open a “new chapter” in stable and mutually beneficial relations.
Lowering the temperature without lowering the guard
All of this will unfold under the close, if largely unspoken, scrutiny of Washington. But the story here is less about Britain attempting to balance between two superpowers, and more about how Sir Keir Starmer is beginning to define a distinctly post-Brexit approach to China. Since entering office, the prime minister has sought to move away from the oscillation of recent years—neither the rhetorical confrontation of the late Johnson period nor the uneasy strategic ambiguity that followed—in favor of a more disciplined, interest-driven approach.
That approach has been characterized by restraint rather than reset. Starmer has been careful to lower the temperature without lowering the guard—reopening channels of dialogue, signaling openness to trade and investment, and engaging Beijing on areas of mutual economic interest, while maintaining firm red lines on national security and values. It is a posture designed to project seriousness and predictability—qualities that have often been lacking in the UK’s China policy since Brexit.
The context, however, is shifting. With Donald Trump preparing to visit China himself, the notion of a rigid, US-led front line is already under strain. Engagement with Beijing is no longer, in itself, a marker of disloyalty. What matters instead is intent, scope, and credibility. The UK’s China policy will be judged less on whether it talks to Beijing and more on whether it does so from a position of strategic clarity rather than economic expediency.
For Starmer, the challenge is to ensure that engagement is seen as purposeful rather than permissive. In a post-Brexit world, where Britain is seeking growth, global relevance, and diplomatic agency outside the EU framework, China inevitably looms large. But the space for miscalculation is narrow. A China policy that is too cautious risks irrelevance; one that is too transactional risks eroding trust with allies.
In that sense, the prime minister’s visit to Beijing is not about reviving an old “golden era,” nor about hedging between Washington and Beijing. It is about whether Britain can articulate—and sustain—a coherent China strategy that reflects its economic needs, its security interests, and its alliances, without drifting into ambiguity. Whether that model can endure amid sharpening geopolitical competition is the question that will linger long after the prime minister has returned from Asia.
Materials presented by Edelman’s public & government affairs experts. For additional information, reach out to PublicGovtAffairs-Germany@edelman.com.
