By Casey Hall
SHANGHAI (Reuters) – British Foreign Secretary David Lammy said on Saturday that businesses wanted “stability and clarity” in trade with China, as London seeks to reset relations with Beijing under the new Labour government.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said following a meeting with Lammy on Friday that the bilateral ties “now stand at a new starting point,” adding that “competition among major powers should not be the backdrop of this era.”
Lammy is in Shanghai as part of a two-day China trip that started with a visit to Beijing. In Shanghai, Lammy is meeting with British business leaders to discuss trade links with China.
Britain has made major shifts in its approach towards China over 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 trying to improve relations.
“I’ve been speaking to British industry and it’s important to remember that 95% of that business is not in areas that pertains to national security,” Lammy said in an interview.
“Of course, there are areas of national security interests, and we will always put those first, but what people also want is consistency – what business wants is stability and clarity,” Lammy said.
China is Britain’s sixth-largest trading partner, accounting for 5% of total trade, according to figures published by the British government’s Department for Business and Trade.
Britain’s relations with China under the previous government were soured by clashes over human rights, Hong Kong and allegations of Chinese espionage.
The Labour administration has commissioned a government-wide audit of the UK-China relationship and has said it would be “clear-eyed” when it comes to China, given allegations of Chinese cyber-hacking as well as espionage on British soil.
Lammy said that during his Friday talks in Beijing with Wang he was “able to have dialogue with the Chinese on areas where we disagree.”
He said he discussed: “Hong Kong, areas like Taiwan, areas like human rights in Xinjiang, we were able to have those conversations and raise difficult, challenging issues.”
Sebastien Lai, the son of jailed pro-democracy Hong Kong activist and British citizen Jimmy Lai, told Sky News he hoped Lammy had made it clear that “it is impossible to normalise the relationship if they still have a British national that’s imprisoned for standing up for freedoms that underpin our democracy”.
Jimmy Lai was arrested in 2020 for fraud and involvement in protests and, following delays, is now facing trial for sedition and collusion with foreign forces.
“Let’s be clear, there are values, areas where the UK Government and our cultural approach will be different to China’s and there are important areas of national security where we will always put the UK’s national interests first,” Lammy said.
Lammy added that Britain’s position on Taiwan has not changed under the Labour administration and expressed concern over “some of the tensions that we see in the Taiwan Strait, because that is not in the interests of the global community.”
(Reporting by Casey Hall; Writing by Antoni Slodkowski; Editing by Tom Hogue)
