Keir Starmer held talks with the Chinese leader Xi Jinping this week and proclaimed Britain should have a more ‘sophisticated’ relationship with China. Pippa Crerar, who was with the prime minister on the trip, tells Kiran Stacey what all this means The Guardian
Tag: Asia Pacific
Thursday briefing: Will Keir Starmer’s cautious China gamble pay off?
Good morning. The Starmer has landed. Yesterday, Keir Starmer became the first British prime minister to make the trip to China since Theresa May’s in 2018 (meaning a surprisingly large number of PMs didn’t) and has vowed to bring “stability and clarity” to the UK’s approach to Beijing. Ahead of talks with Starmer, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has said the UK’s relationship with his country had gone through “twists and turns” over the years but that a more “consistent” approach was in both their interests. In response, Starmer told Xi…
China executes 11 people linked to Myanmar scam operation
China on Thursday executed 11 people linked to Myanmar criminal gangs, including “key members” involved in scam operations, state media reported. Scam compounds have flourished in Myanmar’s lawless borderlands, part of a multibillion-dollar illicit industry. The centres are typically staffed by foreigners – including many Chinese – with many saying they were trafficked and forced to swindle people online. Beijing has stepped up cooperation with Southeast Asian nations in recent years to crack down on the compounds, and thousands of people have been repatriated to China. The 11 people executed…
Starmer-Xi meeting live: UK prime minister says he wants ‘more sophisticated’ relationship with China
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Chinese man who filmed evidence of Xinjiang rights abuses is granted asylum in US
A US immigration judge has granted asylum to a Chinese national who he said had a “well founded fear” of persecution if sent back to China after exposing alleged human rights abuses against Uyghurs there. Guan Heng applied for asylum after arriving in the US illegally in 2021. He has been in custody since being swept up in an immigration enforcement operation in August last year as part of a mass deportation campaign by the Trump administration. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) initially sought to deport Guan to Uganda…
Keir Starmer to hold talks with Xi to bolster economic ties with China
Keir Starmer will meet the Chinese president Xi Jinping on Thursday for historic talks he hopes will deepen economic ties at a time when some inside government fear the US is no longer a reliable partner. The prime minister – the first UK leader to visit China in eight years – will hold a 40-minute meeting with Xi at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing before a number of cultural and business receptions. On the flight to Beijing, Starmer told journalists he wanted to bring “stability and clarity”…
Burner phones and lead-lined bags: a history of UK security tactics in China
When prime ministers travel to China, heightened security arrangements are a given – as is the quiet game of cat and mouse that takes place behind the scenes as each country tests out each other’s tradecraft and capabilities. Keir Starmer’s team has been issued with burner phones and fresh sim cards, and is using temporary email addresses, to prevent devices being loaded with spyware or UK government servers being hacked into. The employment of such tactics may sound dramatic but they are par for the course in an age of…
US intelligence agencies disagree with Trump’s opposition to Chagos deal, says Starmer
US intelligence agencies disagree with Donald Trump’s newly found opposition to the Chagos deal, Keir Starmer has said, as he underlined how the US administration had supported the deal as it bolstered their defences. The prime minister made his remarks, which could undermine the US president’s fresh view of the deal as an “act of great stupidity”, on the flight to Beijing for a visit that will cover UK national security among other issues. Downing Street sources have told the Guardian the agreement, which was formally approved by Starmer and…
China lags behind US at AI frontier but could quickly catch up, say experts
Beijing’s AI policy is focused on real-life applications but Chinese companies are beginning to articulate their own grand visions Standing on stage in the eastern China tech hub of Hangzhou, Alibaba’s normally media-shy CEO made an attention-grabbing announcement. “The world today is witnessing the dawn of an AI-driven intelligent revolution,” Eddie Wu told a developer conference in September. “Artificial general intelligence (AGI) will not only amplify human intelligence but also unlock human potential, paving the way for the arrival of artificial superintelligence (ASI).” ASI, Wu said, “could produce a generation…
Starmer says Reform pursuing politics of ‘toxic division’ after Matt Goodwin unveiled as byelection candidate
Keir Starmer has accused the Reform UK candidate in the Greater Manchester byelection of pursuing the politics of “toxic division” after he refused to disown his claim that UK-born people from minority ethnic backgrounds are not necessarily British. The prime minister suggested that Matthew Goodwin, a hard-right activist, would try to “tear people apart” in Gorton and Denton, and that voters wanting to stop Nigel Farage’s party should coalesce around the Labour candidate. Senior Labour figures have warned that the party needs to rapidly present itself as the “stop Reform”…