{"id":394866,"date":"2026-01-28T11:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T11:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/394866\/"},"modified":"2026-01-28T11:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T11:06:08","slug":"keir-starmer-lands-in-beijing-and-says-china-trip-will-bring-benefits-back-to-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/394866\/","title":{"rendered":"Keir Starmer lands in Beijing and says China trip &#8216;will bring benefits back to UK&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Demand for UK goods in China seems to be picking uppublished at 07:46 GMT<\/p>\n<p>07:46 GMT<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-3u1n9h-Contributor etflsgg2\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/7e82925c-8434-4739-8e9c-1c7d42a02611.jpg.webp.webp\" width=\"64\" height=\"64\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Suranjana Tewari<br \/>Asia business correspondent<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It&#8217;s been a difficult few years for UK businesses in China &#8211; but demand seems to be picking up and firms are now seeing an improvement in trade between the two countries. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">According to UK government data, UK exports rose 6.4% to \u00a322.6bn ($29.3bn) between mid-2024 and 2025, reversing a decline the year before. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Some areas of the UK are driving the recovery. In England&#8217;s North West, exports have surged by more than 40%, led by sales of high-tech generators and pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In the South West, exports of machinery, medical equipment and transport-related goods grew for a fourth straight year. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Services are performing even more strongly &#8211; in business, finance, education, technology, legal, accounting, and digital services.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Travel and tourism are also rebounding, with visits from China to the UK rising sharply, and Chinese visitors once again becoming an important source of spending for Britain&#8217;s hotels, retailers and attractions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The trade relationship remains heavily tilted in China&#8217;s favour &#8211; but the latest figures show British exports are recovering.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A bar chart titled &quot;UK's top goods imports from China&quot;, showing the top five goods imported from China to the UK by value, in 2024. The top was telecoms and sound equipment, at \u00a37.4bn, followed by other manufactures (\u00a35.3bn), office machinery (\u00a34.9bn), cars (\u00a34.1bn), and miscellaneous electrical goods (\u00a33.6bn). The source is the Office for National Statistics.\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/64849506-23c6-4540-8e42-375f6eb12db2.png.webp.webp\"  width=\"1280\" height=\"1280\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Demand for UK goods in China seems to be picking uppublished at 07:46 GMT 07:46 GMT Suranjana TewariAsia&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-394866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}