By Laurie Chen
BEIJING/LONDON (Reuters) -China and Britain took steps towards further reconciliation on Friday, with Beijing heralding the new Labour government’s plan to develop “pragmatic” bilateral ties as a “new starting point”.
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy is only the second top U.K. diplomat to visit China in six years, and his trip seeks to demonstrate that Britain is taking a strategic approach to building ties with Beijing, despite areas of sharp disagreement.
“China-Britain relations … now stand at a new starting point,” Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi said during a meeting with his counterpart at Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing.
“Competition among major powers should not be the backdrop of this era.”
Lammy mentioned scope for “mutually beneficial cooperation” in areas such as climate, energy, science, trade and tech, while cautioning that Britain would “always put its national interests and national security first”.
Beijing and London should “show that countries such as ours with different histories and outlooks still find pragmatic solutions to complex challenges,” he said.
The Labour government, elected in July, wants to show it is serious about engaging with China, balancing a desire to co-operate on economic and global matters with challenging Beijing on issues like its support for Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Wang added that Beijing judged Labour’s new model for developing relations as “positive” because it “conforms to … the current needs of the bilateral relationship.”
Lammy’s will meet his Chinese counterpart Wang and Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang, responsible for science and technology, in Beijing on Friday, before travelling to Shanghai to meet British businesses operating in China on Saturday.
Speaking before the visit, Lammy said engagement with China was “necessary to support UK and global interests”, and added that he hoped to raise Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the global green transition with his counterpart.
Lammy’s visit is not expected to yield major diplomatic agreements. Mao Ning, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, said the talks would focus on improving cooperation in various fields.
Britain’s relations with China under the previous government were soured by clashes over human rights, Hong Kong, and allegations of Chinese espionage.
Earlier this year, Britain said it was extremely concerned after Reuters reported Russia has established a weapons programme in China to develop and produce long-range attack drones for use in the war against Ukraine.
Britain has made major shifts in its approach towards China in the past decade, moving from saying it wanted to be China’s greatest supporter in Europe to being one of its fiercest critics, and now again trying to improve relations under the new Labour government.
The Labour administration has commissioned a government-wide audit of the U.K.-China relationship and has said it would be “clear-eyed” when it comes to China, given allegations of Chinese cyberhacking as well as espionage on British soil.
Meanwhile China faces worsening relations with the European Union over various trade defence measures, as well as fractious ties with the United States.
China is Britain’s sixth-largest trading partner, accounting for 5% of total trade, British government figures show.
(Reporting by Laurie Chen in Beijing, William James and Andrew MacAskill in London, Editing by William Maclean and Christina Fincher)
