U.K.’s Starmer Joins Ranks of U.S. Allies Testing China’s Embrace

In a visit to Beijing, the British leader is seeking to rekindle ties with Xi Jinping, with a business delegation in tow.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Chinese leader Xi Jinping moved to improve ties in Beijing on Thursday as Britain’s relations with the U.S. have slipped following President Trump’s tariff increases and calls for the seizure of Greenland.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. (Bloomberg)

China has sought to woo U.S. allies amid the disruption, a point Xi emphasized as the two leaders met in the Great Hall of the People and together called for a “comprehensive strategic partnership.”

“Right now the world is both fluid and turbulent,” Xi said. “Be it for the sake of world peace and stability or for our two countries’ economies and people’s livelihoods, it is imperative for us to strengthen dialogue and cooperation.”

Starmer called China “a vital player on the world stage,” saying it was “vital that we build a more sophisticated relationship.”

His visit is the latest example of U.S. postwar allies seeking new opportunities around the world as a hedge against the uncertainty of trade and diplomatic ties with Washington.

Starmer traveled with more than 50 British business representatives, including financial and pharmaceutical company executives and the heads of several cultural enterprises. He cited both the “Golden Age” of China-U.K. ties in the early 2000s and the “Ice Age” of recent years, when relations frayed over a series of issues, saying Britain needed to find a steady middle ground.

The warming between the U.K. and China follows Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s meeting with Xi this month in Beijing, where they agreed to an easing of some trade restrictions on Chinese electric vehicles and Canadian canola seeds.

Carney last week declared in a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that Canada, which Trump has at times called the “51st state,” had been forced to rethink its strategic posture. Carney called on other “middle powers” to follow Canada’s path of resisting hegemons by “engaging broadly, strategically with open eyes.”

Keir Starmer and Xi Jinping meet at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

The speech provoked a backlash from the White House, which threatened 100% tariffs on Canada if it entered a free-trade deal with China.

Starmer has played down the possibility that his trip to Beijing, the first in eight years by a British prime minister, could anger the U.S. He has said that the U.K. doesn’t have to choose between China and the U.S. and can do business with both.

China-U.K. relations deteriorated badly after 2018 when at President Trump’s urging the U.K. moved to curb Chinese investment in its 5G telecom network. The country later also called out Beijing for its crackdown on Hong Kong, a former British colony, and for allegedly orchestrating a mass-espionage effort to steal British intellectual property.

The fate of Jimmy Lai, a Hong Kong media tycoon and British citizen who now faces a lengthy sentence for a national security law conviction, has also been a sore point between the two countries. The U.K., U.S. and European Union have criticized Lai’s trail as a politically motivated attack on peaceful expression. His family and supporters have called on Starmer to push for Lai’s release.

Starmer didn’t address the case in his public remarks ahead of the meeting with Xi. But he said the two countries could “identify areas to collaborate but also allow meaningful dialogue on areas where we disagree.”

After Starmer entered office in 2024, the U.K. began to change tack toward China as the government put an onus on bolstering global trade ties to boost economic growth and offset the effects of its divorce from the European Union.

Starmer said in December that it was time to re-engage with China. “For years we have blown hot and cold,” he said in a speech. “The result is that, whilst our allies have developed a more sophisticated approach, the U.K. has become an outlier.”

China was the U.K.’s fourth-largest trading partner last year, but sits far behind the EU and the U.S. The U.K. has begun trade talks with Beijing to try to further prize open its market to British goods.

To smooth the way, the British government recently granted a planning application for the biggest Chinese embassy in Europe to be built in London. China bought the site in 2018, but the project has been tied up in red tape and political concerns that the huge building could become a spy hub. Xi had personally asked Starmer during a call to grant planning consent.

Write to Austin Ramzy at austin.ramzy@wsj.com and Max Colchester at Max.Colchester@wsj.com