Since winning the general election last year, Labour has sought to thaw the UK’s relationship with Beijing.<\/p>\n
Chancellor Rachel Reeves, Business Secretary Peter Kyle and the most senior civil servant in the Foreign Office, Sir Olly Robbins, have all been on visits to China.<\/p>\n
The prime minister is expected to make his own trip to the country, perhaps as soon as early next year.<\/p>\n
Asked about the prospect of heading there, he told reporters en route to the G20 Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, that no visit was confirmed yet.<\/p>\n
He said the government’s approach to China “is the same approach as we’ve always taken, which is cooperate where we can and challenge where we must, particularly on national security”.<\/p>\n
Critics argue the government is insufficiently hard-headed about what they see as the threat posed by Beijing, and argue for a much greater caution in the UK’s relationship.<\/p>\n
Dame Priti said: “Keir Starmer really hates Britain.<\/p>\n
“He’s jetting off to Beijing, days after our intelligence services issued alerts about Chinese espionage following the massive spy case.”<\/p>\n
Earlier this week MI5 warned MPs and peers they faced a significant risk of spying from the Chinese state.<\/p>\n
The alert said individuals working on behalf of the Chinese Ministry of State Security were posing a “headhunters” on platforms like LinkedIn and targeting people working in British politics to obtain insider information.<\/p>\n
China has rejected claims of espionage as “pure fabrication”.<\/p>\n