China’s Xi Jinping has “no regard for the UK” despite Sir Keir Starmer’s attempts to forge closer ties, leading critics have warned.
The Prime Minister could meet and hold talks with the Chinese President at the G20 Summit in Brazil.
But Sir Keir has been warned that cosying up to Beijing could have disastrous consequences, including weakening the relationship with Donald Trump’s White House.
Sir Keir could become the first UK leader since Theresa May in 2018 to meet with the Chinese premier.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy also flew to Beijing and Shanghai last month, during which he met with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.
Leading China hawk Sir Iain Duncan Smith told the Daily Express: “What is he doing going over there?
“President Xi has no regard for the UK and is trashing all the rules-based order around the world, from human rights, to the WTO, China just ignores what it is told.
“President Trump believes China is a threat to Western values and I happen to agree with him. I think they are.
“China has 230 times the shipbuilding capacity of America now. Only one shipyard in China can outbuild all of the United States.
“They are building up their army and when it comes to commerce, lots of middle ground companies are leaving China and there’s a reason for that.
“China steals their IP, trashes their businesses and has no regard for WTO rules.
“China is now in utter command of the solar market and the wind farm market. The reason they’ve been able to crush all of the competition is they use slave labour. That means they are cheaper as they don’t have to use skilled people.
“They undercut our markets.”
The Prime Minister, when he spoke to President Xi in August, said the wants to have “open, frank and honest” talks about areas of disagreement.
Prior to Labour’s General Election victory in July, Sir Keir and Mr Lammy blasted “14 years of damaging Conservative inconsistency over China”.
They pledged to conduct an “audit” of the UK-China relationship if they won power, in order to better understand the “challenges and opportunities” posed by Beijing.
Mr Trump has made standing up to China a central foreign policy goal – not just in trade where he is proposing tariffs of 60% on Chinese imports, but across the spectrum.
Simon Finkelstein, who worked as a special adviser to Dominic Raab when he was foreign secretary, said: “Starmer meeting with Xi at the G20 is positive.
“But a UK government push to improve economic ties will set them on a collision course with the China hawks in the Trump administration.
“Trump and Rubio will not be receptive to a new UK-China economic dialogue.
“Rubio, Waltz and Stefanik are all China hawks who see economic competition with China as the defining issue of the age. Trump’s tariff plans are partly a response to Chinese economic aggression.
“It seems inconceivable that Labour could pursue closer trade ties with China without encountering the ire of the new US administration. In 2020, Trump made it clear that the UK proceeding with Huawei would damage the relationship. The UK duly changed position.”
But it has now emerged the UK could highlight the success of the nuclear submarine deal – Aukus – with President Trump to show how London wants to deter the threat of China in the Indo-Pacific region.
Aukus is a trilateral security pact between Australia, the UK and America that was signed under Boris Johnson and Joe Biden’s leaderships in September 2021.
It agrees that the three countries will share secretive technology to build nuclear-powered submarines.
One Whitehall source working on preparations for Mr Trump’s White House return told The Telegraph: “We must seize the opportunities presented.
“If one of those things is to find common ground on Aukus due to the China hawks in his administration, that all helps.
“Whilst there’s potential contention around Ukraine, Europe, and trade, if there is an area of mutual agreement it would be good to use it as a building block and to our advantage. It would help prove the essential role of the special relationship.”
