China’s president, Xi Jinping, has heaped praise on Keir Starmer’s economic policy, as the UK prime minister used their first meeting to raise concerns about sanctions on MPs and the treatment of the pro-democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai. During their conversation at the G20 summit in Rio, the first meeting between the UK and China’s leaders in six years, Starmer said he would be keen to host a full bilateral meeting with Xi and the Chinese premier, Li Qiang, in Beijing or London as soon as possible, aimed at turning the page on frosty UK-China relations. In a marked change of tone from previous years, Xi said Starmer was “fixing the foundations” of the UK economy, echoing the prime minister’s own slogan. He said the pair would “break new ground” in the relationship.
But the prime minister also raised human rights concerns with the Chinese president about sanctions on British Conservative MPs and the deterioration of Lai, a British citizen and Hong Kong democracy activist. Starmer promised a “strong UK-China relationship” and said the pair had agreed there should be no more “surprises” between the two countries. Chinese officials bundled British journalists out of the meeting when Starmer raised the plight of Lai, who is being held in Hong Kong. “The world has entered a new period marked by turbulence and transformation,” Xi said in the meeting. “The new UK government is working to fix the foundations of the economy and rebuild Britain and has set the vision of Britain reconnected. And China is further deepening reform across the board to advance Chinese modernisation.” Starmer said the pair had acknowledged they wanted “relations to be consistent, durable, respectful and, as we have agreed, avoid surprises where possible”. “A strong UK-China relationship is important for both of our countries and for the broader international community,” he said at the top of the meeting. “The UK will be a predictable, consistent, sovereign actor committed to the rule of law.” He proposed a full bilateral meeting with Li in Beijing or London, and for the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, to meet her counterpart, He Lifeng, which is expected to happen in Beijing in January. “I’m keen that my chancellor should meet with Vice-Premier He for the upcoming economic financial dialogue early next year to explore more investment projects and a more level playing field to help our businesses,” Starmer said. “I’m very pleased that my foreign secretary and foreign minister Wang met recently to discuss respective concerns including on human rights and parliamentary sanctions, Taiwan, the South China Sea and our shared interest in Hong Kong. We are concerned by reports of Jimmy Lai’s deterioration.” More than 100 senior politicians from 22 countries have called on China to release Lai before his trial that restarts in Hong Kong on Wednesday. Held in custody since December 2020, Lai faces a range of sedition and foreign collusion charges that include meeting politicians in the US. Signatories to the appeal include the chairs of a range of foreign affairs committees and prominent MPs from across Europe, Canada and Australia and the Balkans. The signatories point out that Lai is 77, a British citizen and was declared as being arbitrarily detained by a UN panel last week. In a statement, they claim he has been held inhumanely in solitary confinement in a maximum-security prison for four years, and call for his immediate release “before it is too late”. The UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, recently met Jimmy Lai’s son Sebastian to promise to do all he could to secure his release. Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary, said Starmer the UK’s world standing risked “being weakened” if Starmer was not robust with China. “While it is important to have a constructive diplomatic dialogue with China, the prime minister should have been stronger in raising our concerns over human rights, the repressive nature of the national security laws imposed on Hong Kong, and the security, safety and wellbeing of British nationals, like Jimmy Lai, who should be freed from custody,” she said. The former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith, who is also under sanctions from Beijing, condemned Starmer’s attempt to resuscitate relations. “President Xi has no regard for the UK and is trashing all the rules-based order around the world – from human rights to the WTO, China just ignores what it is told,” he said. No British prime minister had met Xi since Theresa May visited Beijing in 2018 in the midst of a trade push during Brexit negotiations, though Boris Johnson spoke to the Chinese president during the pandemic. Since then, relations have significantly cooled because of cyber threats, a human rights crackdown in Hong Kong and the sanctions against MPs. Lammy visited China last month in the first signal that the new Labour government saw a renewal of better ties as a diplomatic priority.