China watching Britain for signs of a thaw as new Labour government weighs up its options
- Keir Starmer’s administration is wrestling with the same dilemmas over security, trade and human rights that its EU neighbours are facing
State media has latched on to reports that the new Foreign Secretary David Lammy is “considering” a visit at some point.
Zhao Junjie, a member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told Global Times, a newspaper affiliated with Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily, that the government “is likely to uphold the relatively friendly approach” of Tony Blair’s previous Labour administration.
Appetite for engagement will doubtless be welcomed, but Beijing should not assume that Keir Starmer’s new Labour government will give it an easy ride. A lot has changed since Blair left office in 2007.
So far Labour has been vague about its plans for China and the slogans its leaders adopted on the campaign trail could be interchanged with those of the European Union’s leaders.
These bromides suggest that, like all Western governments, Labour is still grappling with how exactly it should deal with Beijing – although it finds itself in a position of relative strength.
“The government has a huge majority and a significant amount of goodwill both within parliament and the press to consider a different approach on China. That, of course, does require having the bandwidth and the desire to be proactive,” said Sam Goodman, senior policy director at the China Strategic Risks Institute think tank.
