British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer told Chinese communist dictator Xi Jinping during their meeting Wednesday he wants the U.K. to build a “sophisticated relationship” with China.
As Breitbart News reported, Starmer arrived landed in Beijing on a chartered British Airways jet, allegedly to keep Chinese spies away from the U.K. government’s official plane. Starmer is scheduled to carry out a three-day agenda during his trip to China.
China only officially announced Starmer’s trip hours before he arrived on Tuesday.
The British Prime Minister met with Xi on Thursday. The South China Morning Post reports that Xi called for a “new chapter” in U.K.-China relations during his encounter with Starmer, and said that the two countries “should deepen dialogue in a complex and volatile world.”
Left turn: Zhao Leji (R), Chairman of the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress, gives directions to Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on January 29, 2026. (Carl Court / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)
Starmer, for his part, expressed that he wants a “sophisticated relationship with Beijing to boost the British economy. Starmer reportedly said that he and Xi spoke about “soccer and Shakespeare, as well as business matters” during the 80 minute-long encounter with the Chinese dictator before they lunched together.
Xi said that China’s ties with the U.K. had gone through “twists and turns” that did not serve the interests of either country and that China was ready to develop a long-term partnership which, he asserted to Starmer, “can deliver a result that can withstand the test of history.”
“Range far your eye over long distances,” Xi, quoting a Chinese proverb, told Starmer during his opening remarks.
The Chinese state news outlet Xinhua reports that Xi called on China and the United Kingdom as “supporters for multilateralism and free trade, to jointly advocate and practice true multilateralism,” asserting that “international law can only be truly effective when all countries abide by it” and that ” major countries should take the lead in particular, otherwise, the world would risk regressing into the law of jungle.”
According to the Chinese state-owned Global Times, Xi claimed during his meeting with Starmer that China “will never pose a threat to other countries no matter how it grows and develops,” asserting that “that China has never initiated a war, nor occupied an inch of foreign land.”
Starmer, speaking with Sky News after the meeting, said that he and his some 50-member delegation had a “very good, productive session with real, concrete outcomes,” which he further catalogued as a ” real strengthening of the relationship” with China.
“A lot of discussion was about how we open up access for those [business] opportunities, focusing, as I always do, on how is this going to be delivered back in the United Kingdom, how does it benefit people back at home,” Starmer said.
“And we made some really good progress on tariffs for whisky, on visa-free travel to China and on information exchange and cooperation on irregular migration, focusing particularly on small boats and engine parts. So a very good, constructive meeting with real outcomes, and that’s very much in our national interest,” he continued.
“What I say to everybody here is that, I always act in our national interest,” Starmer told Sky News when asked for comment for those in the U.K. who might feel squeamish on his relationship with China.
“I know that, whatever’s going on in the world, the most important thing, to the vast majority of people is the cost of living,” he stressed. “So opening up access to business opportunities, seizing those opportunities which then get reflected in better businesses, in jobs and price reductions at home, really, really matter. And so we made real progress on all of those areas.”
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