King's College London

This week UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer asked for consistency and less surprises during his meeting with President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Rio. Discussing what we should read into the UK-China talks, Kerry Brown said that the talks were more about ‘pragmatic engagement’ and cooperation on the issues that bring both countries together.

He said both China and the UK are facing challenges to their economies and working out what they mean for each other is going to be important - “environment, AI, these are common issues which we broadly agree on which gives us a basis to talk [with China] even if there are areas we disagree.”

What would an improved China-UK relationship look like?

Professor Brown said that for the UK its that we don’t have a massive amount of investment from China, that’s the first issue. And for the UK into China we don’t have a Free Trade Agreement or a framework for engaging with the 4, 5 million middle class city dwellers - maybe they would use British services, finance, things like this. We’ve got limited avenues into the Chinese services economy and I think that’s what companies in Britain, some of them well established like HSBC, others with less of a track record there really want to try and exploit and build up.

In terms of trade, China is now one of our largest trading partners – I think its fourth or fifth largest. However, its still not a massive relationship. British exporters want to send their goods, their technology to China. Finally, China is a technology superpower now, its universities are doing really well, its creating a lot of new innovative research, having a better relationship we can participate in, where we can co-research, this is all very practical. Things that should be happening.

Those on the right have questioned whether Starmer’s strategy for engaging with China is risky and controversial. Brown said that Britain and China have a long history and that both countries know each other well, the UK government knows its priority is the economy and its productivity issues. China as the world’s second biggest economy must play a role in that.

Can the UK have its cake and eat it?

On whether the UK can have a stronger relationship with China and at the same time a good relationship with the incoming Trump administration, Brown said that as a security partner the UK would need to balance its relationship with the US with what it does with China but there was a need to for the UK to keep sight of its own bilateral interests.

Watch the interview