LONDON: Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned on Monday that China posed \u201cnational security threats\u201d to Britain, but defended his government\u2019s decision to step up engagement with the country, saying closer business ties were in the national interest.<\/p>\n
Starmer\u2019s Labour government has made improved relations with China one of its foreign policy priorities, but relations between the two countries have been strained by British accusations of spying by Beijing.<\/p>\n
In one of his clearest attempts to explain his approach to China, Starmer said in a speech to business leaders in London\u2019s historic financial district that Britain\u2019s relationship with China had for too long \u201cblown hot and cold.\u201d<\/p>\n
Britain has made major shifts in its approach toward China in the past decade, moving from saying it wanted to be China\u2019s greatest supporter in Europe in the so-called \u201cgolden era\u201d of relations to then being one of its fiercest critics.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s time for a serious approach, to reject the simplistic binary choice, neither golden age nor ice age, and recognize the plain fact that you can work and trade with a country while still protecting yourself,\u201d Starmer said.<\/p>\n
Starmer\u2019s decision to publicly say China posed \u201cnational security threats\u201d comes after prosecutors said a trial of men accused of spying for Beijing collapsed in September because the government declined to describe the country in similar terms.<\/p>\n
Calling the previous Conservative government\u2019s lack of engagement with China \u201ca dereliction of duty,\u201d Starmer said since 2018 French President Emmanuel Macron had visited China twice and German leaders had visited China four times.<\/p>\n
But the last British leader to visit was China was Former Prime Minister Theresa May in 2018.<\/p>\n
Starmer is preparing to visit China next year, according to sources, following trips by at least four cabinet ministers since Labour was elected last year.<\/p>\n
Rejecting the idea that the relationship was defined by balancing economic and security considerations, Starmer said his government would not trade security in one area for more economic access.<\/p>\n
\u201cProtecting our security is non-negotiable \u2014 our first duty,\u201d he said. \u201cBut by taking tough steps to keep us secure, we enable ourselves to cooperate in other areas.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Starmer said in areas where there is no significant security risk, he would encourage businesses to try to improve their business ties with China.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn areas like financial and professional services, creative industries, pharmaceuticals, luxury goods and more \u2014 great British success stories \u2013 the export opportunities are huge and we will back you to seize them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON: Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned on Monday that China posed \u201cnational security threats\u201d to Britain, but defended his government\u2019s decision to step up engagement with the country, saying closer business ties were in the national interest. Starmer\u2019s Labour government has made improved relations with China one of its foreign policy priorities, but relations between …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":90455,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-90441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90441"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90456,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90441\/revisions\/90456"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}