Greater China ENG

Описание: Starmer in Beijing: if it isn’t a line, it certainly looks like one, because across European diaries—and beyond—one urgency seems to dominate: showing up at Xi Jinping’s court to reopen political and economic channels with a pivotal global player; after visits involving France, South Korea, Ireland, Canada and Finland—and with German chancellor Friedrich Merz expected next month—UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has now clocked in for Britain’s first top-level visit in eight years, bringing the familiar signal of seriousness: a large, high-profile delegation that included Trade Minister Peter Kyle, Treasury number two Lucy Rigby, and roughly sixty business leaders and cultural figures, underlining that this is as much about market access, investment and long-term ties as it is about geopolitics; the scripted messages were equally telling, with Starmer calling China essential and arguing for a “more sophisticated” relationship, claiming “genuinely positive” progress, while Xi framed “more dialogue” as an imperative; the chill that once defined China–Europe relations—fed by security warnings and mutual suspicion—now competes with a heavier reality: China’s industrial and tech centrality, from vast shares of global manufacturing and rare-earth processing to a dominant role in clean-tech supply chains, alongside a record-scale trade surplus in 2025; before departing, Starmer stressed London would not be forced to “choose” between the United States and China, a neat summary of Downing Street’s balancing act—pragmatic, cautious, and wary of being pushed around as economic diplomacy can quickly harden into economic war—while also trying to profit from a fragmented globalization where trade, technology, capital and currencies increasingly flow through rival political channels and investors must price politics as intensely as earnings and inflation, as Asia Times put it in describing a bet on multipolar capitalism; the hard files remain on the table, however, with Starmer saying he raised sensitive issues including pro-democracy publisher Jimmy Lai of Hong Kong and human-rights concerns linked to Xinjiang; from Beijing’s perspective, the moment is an opportunity to present itself as a steady, reliable partner amid US retrenchment and assertiveness, deepen ties with key partners and US-aligned countries, Reuters notes, and build the most valuable intangible asset of all: trust. 🤝