Britain and China plan to restart a “golden era” business dialogue during Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s scheduled visit to Beijing next week, according to three sources, with senior executives from both nations expected to join.
AstraZeneca, BP, HSBC, Intercontinental Hotels Group, Jaguar Land Rover, Rolls Royce, Schroders and Standard Chartered are among the British firms set to join a revamped “UK-China CEO Council”.
The council was originally conceived by then-Prime Minister Theresa May and then-Premier Li Keqiang in 2018, during a period of ties both sides dubbed “a golden era.”
Negotiations and Uncertainties
The Chinese side should be represented by Bank of China, China Construction Bank, China Mobile, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Rail and Rolling Stock Corporation, China National Pharmaceutical Group, and BYD, among other companies, the sources added.
Negotiations have been underway for a while, but with Starmer’s visit largely contingent on approval on Tuesday for China to build its largest embassy in Europe in London, talks have only just begun in earnest, the sources said.
All of the sources cautioned that U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to acquire Greenland could derail Starmer’s trip, while adding that with the embassy decision still so recent, other elements of the visit were still being finalised.
The British side could announce the visit and Starmer’s schedule as soon as Friday, one of the sources said.
Resetting UK-China Relations
Starmer is set to make the first visit by a British leader since 2018, aiming to reset ties with the world’s second‑largest economy after successive Conservative governments shifted the UK from one of Beijing’s strongest backers in Europe to one of its fiercest critics.
In a speech late last year, the Labour party leader accused previous Conservative governments of a “dereliction of duty” by allowing ties with Beijing to deteriorate, noting French President Emmanuel Macron had visited China twice since 2018 and German leaders four times.
Commercial ties soured after the UK banned China’s Huawei from its 5G networks in 2020, and in 2022 British lawmakers led a taxpayer‑funded buyout of China General Nuclear Power Corporation’s (CGN) stake in a nuclear plant being developed by France’s EDF.
CGN was part of the original CEO Council, but along with Huawei, is unlikely to join the revamped group, one of the sources said, citing political sensitivities in the UK over Chinese firms’ role in the country’s critical infrastructure.
(With input from Reuters)
