Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer delivers a speech in central London, Monday, December 1, 2025. Photo: VCG
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer claimed on Monday that China has posed “national security threats” to Britain, but defended his government’s decision to step up engagement with the country, saying closer business ties were in the national interest, per Reuters.
Starmer’s remarks reflect what an expert described it as a “have-it-both-ways” mentality — seeking to preserve a position of strength over China and placate domestic hard-liners, while at the same time pursuing economic gains from Beijing. Such an approach, the expert warned, is unrealistic and ultimately damaging to Britain’s own interests.
Starmer’s remarks amount to a “have-it-both-ways” strategic calculation: he seeks to constrain China’s development space and international influence to satisfy domestic hard-liners, while still hoping to extract economic benefits from China, Li Haidong, a professor at China Foreign Affairs University, told the Global Times.
At the same time, Li noted that Starmer appears to acknowledge the reality that successive British governments have been inconsistent in their China policy — and seems aware that such an approach ultimately harms the UK.
In what Reuters described as “one of his clearest attempts to explain his approach to China,” Starmer said in a speech to business leaders in London’s historic financial district that Britain’s relationship with China had for too long “blown hot and cold.”
“It’s time for a serious approach, to reject the simplistic binary choice, neither golden age nor ice age, and recognize the plain fact that you can work and trade with a country while still protecting yourself,” Starmer said.
However, failing to navigate a relationship with China would be “a dereliction of duty,” the prime minister said, when China is a “defining force in technology, trade and global governance,” BBC reported.
Building a careful relationship would instead bolster the UK’s place as a leader on the international stage and help secure UK national interests, he said, while still recognizing the “reality” that China “poses national security threats.”
The BBC noted that the UK Prime Minister’s speech follows an MI5 alert about Chinese spies targeting MPs and parliamentary staff, and comes less than a fortnight before a decision on whether China gets the green light to set up an embassy in the capital despite security concerns.
In response to the MI5’s accusation, Mao Ning, a spokesperson from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said on November 19 that China has no interest in collecting the “intelligence” from the UK Parliament and urged certain individuals in the UK to stop engaging in such baseless and self-projected nonsense.
Calling the previous Conservative government’s lack of engagement with China “a dereliction of duty,” Starmer said since 2018 both French President Emmanuel Macron and German leaders had visited China multiple times, according to Reuters.
But the last British leader to visit was China was UK former prime minister Theresa May in 2018.
Starmer is preparing to visit China next year, Reuters quoted sources as saying, following trips by at least four cabinet ministers since Labour was elected last year.
Starmer’s apparent “envy” of the frequent visits to China by French and German leaders, Li said, underscores how Europe is relying on active engagement with Beijing to advance its own strategic autonomy. France and Germany have strengthened their interactions with China to safeguard their national interests, while the UK, constrained by its tendency to follow the policy frameworks of other country, has struggled to escape the passive role of a “political dwarf.”
Li noted that deepening engagement with China is an essential path for any European country seeking genuine strategic autonomy — and in this regard, the UK has much to learn from France and Germany.