UK-China relationship

On Thursday 13 February, Foreign Minister Wang Yi made his first official visit to Britain for the first time in a decade. The visit, which emphasised the need for stable communication and deeper cooperation, included meetings with Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Foreign Secretary David Lammy, and National Security Adviser Jonathan Powell. During the visit, Wang and Lammy co-chaired the 10th China-UK Strategic Dialogue, where discussions covered economic cooperation, security, and …

The UK’s economic relationship with China has evolved significantly over the past few decades, with both nations recognising the mutual benefits of strategic investment partnerships. With the Labour government pursuing an ambitious UK growth agenda, the UK finds itself at a pivotal moment in terms of collaborating with and seeking investment from China. China’s expanding role in the global economy offers a wealth of opportunities for collaboration that could help …

The government hopes that UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves’ visit to China will boost British growth by engaging with the world’s second-largest economy in a “pragmatic” way Reeves’ visit follows the dialogue opened last year between Prime Minister Keir Starmer and President Xi Jinping at the G20 Summit in November 2024, the first between the two countries’ leaders in six years. At that meeting, Starmer emphasised the importance of …

2023 has been about recovery: recovery of relationships, revenues, and – in more ways than one – our collective sanity, writes Tom Simpson Over the past year, we have seen a gradual rapprochement of Western relations with China, including the UK, after a few years of tense relations and largely constructive introspection. This was particularly the case over the last four months with James Cleverly’s visit to Beijing and the …

Former diplomat Lord McDonald, who played a key role in the “Golden Age” of UK-China relations, talks to Andy Mok about the ways in which both British businesses and the UK government should be approaching China in 2023. In the summer of 2022, Lord McDonald of Salford’s intervention in the Chris Pincher affair – accusing then Prime Minister Boris Johnson of being less than honest about his knowledge of Deputy …

The long-awaited refresh to the UK Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy (known as the Integrated Review, or IR) was published on 13 March, two years on from the first version. Lewis Husain and James Keeley from the Institute of Development Studies examine what it means for the UK’s relationship with China amid a challenging global environment From the Integrated Review to IR2023 The IR is the …

In the first of our COP26 series, we review the background of UK-China environmental relations, and examine how the meetings offer an opportunity for British leaders to make good on their green promises and the positive examples of joint action with China that are already taking place all around the country Tackling climate change will probably be the most important issue facing the world’s diplomatic and business communities this century. …

The CPTPP was born out of negotiations between the US and 11 nations on the Asia-Pacific rim; these economies originally sought to develop a trade pact to hedge against China’s rise. So why has China now applied to join the CPTPP? Joe Cash investigates The UK formally applied to join the Comprehensive & Progress Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) on 2 February, a move that made headlines across the UK …

Lord James Sassoon is the Chairman of the China Britain Business Council and executive director of Jardine Matheson & Co. He explains that the UK-China relationship will only strengthen At CBBC, throughout our 65 years supporting UK-China trade and investment, we have described our work as ‘helping UK companies enter the China market’. Of course, this is still at the core of what we do. But the reality of the …

How two British companies, introduced by CBBC, created China’s smash rock documentary. Rock star, composer and judge on Voice of China, Wang Feng stands on stage at the premiere of Existence – a feature-length documentary about China’s biggest rock star and his long and turbulent rise to fame. Standing beside this Chinese icons, struggling to see past the sea of microphones and cameras, are two blond-haired brothers from Britain. Brothers …