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Sir Keir Starmer plans to make his first official visit to China at the end of January, after the UK is expected to approve plans put forward by Beijing to build a new “mega” embassy in the heart of London.
Downing Street did not on Wednesday deny that the prime minister had proposed travelling to Beijing and Shanghai between January 29 and January 31, the first such trip to China since Baroness Theresa May visited in 2018.
The proposed trip is expected to be contingent on Britain approving Beijing’s plan for a new embassy on the site of the old Royal Mint, with a decision on the planning application now delayed until January 20.
“We confirm the prime minister’s travel in the usual way and haven’t set out any plans on this,” Number 10 said in response to a report by Reuters on the proposed trip at the end of January.
Starmer this week laid the foundations for his contentious trip to China — which will follow visits by chancellor Rachel Reeves and then foreign secretary David Lammy — with Downing Street also suggesting approval of the London super-embassy would be good for national security.
In a speech to a City of London audience on Monday, Starmer suggested Britain needed to take a “more sophisticated” approach to its relationship with China, saying bilateral ties had “blown hot and cold” for years.
“While our allies have developed a more sophisticated approach, the UK has become an outlier,” he said. “President Trump met President Xi in October and will visit China in April.
“Since early 2018, President Macron has visited China twice, and he’ll be again there later this week. German leaders have visited four times, and Chancellor Merz will be there in the new year. Yet, during this same period, no British prime minister has visited China.
“I’m talking here about the second-biggest economy in the world — a nation that accounts for over a quarter of global R&D, and leads in some critical technologies that are key.”
Meanwhile, Downing Street paved the way for the approval of the Chinese embassy, while announcing that ministers needed until January 20 to make their final planning decision. A decision had been due this month.
On Tuesday, Number 10 said consolidation of Beijing’s diplomatic premises in London would “clearly bring security advantages” for the UK.
“Should the planning decision for a new embassy be approved, the new embassy would replace seven different sites, which currently comprises China’s diplomatic footprint in London,” it said.
But the foreign ministry in Beijing on Wednesday expressed its “serious concern and strong dissatisfaction” with the fresh delay, adding: “All the so-called reasons [for it] are completely untenable.”
The proposed embassy would be close to fibre-optic cables carrying sensitive data to the City of London. Conservative politicians have strongly criticised the plan, claiming that as the largest embassy in Europe it would become a spying hub for Beijing.
Earlier on Wednesday parliament’s security committee criticised the “shambolic” handling of prosecutors’ attempts to bring charges against two men accused of spying for Beijing.
The case against Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry collapsed in September after the government did not define China as an “enemy” or “national security threat” in evidence for the Crown Prosecution Service.
Cash had previously worked as a parliamentary researcher for a hawkish anti-China group of MPs. Both men had denied the charges.
The joint committee on the national security strategy (JCNSS) said it had not found any evidence of a “co-ordinated high-level effort” to collapse the prosecution nor of deliberate efforts to obstruct it.
But the cross-party group of MPs and peers found the process between the government and CPS was “beset by confusion and misaligned expectations”, adding: “Some aspects are best described as shambolic.”
The government said it welcomed the report “that makes clear that allegations about interference in this case were baseless and untrue”.
“The decision to drop the case was taken independently by the Crown Prosecution Service. We remain disappointed that this case did not reach trial,” it added.
Last month, the government warned China it would never accept attempts to “interfere in our sovereign affairs” after MI5 told MPs that Beijing’s intelligence services were trying to recruit people working in parliament.
