{"id":397431,"date":"2026-01-29T20:13:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T20:13:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/397431\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T20:13:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T20:13:06","slug":"keir-starmers-softly-softly-approach-ushers-in-new-era-of-uk-china-trade-relations-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/397431\/","title":{"rendered":"Keir Starmer\u2019s softly-softly approach ushers in new era of UK-China trade relations \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Britain recently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/britain-eyes-nhs-drug-spending-hike-to-stave-off-trump-tariffs\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">increased the amount<\/a> the NHS pays for branded, pharmaceutical drugs, following heavy industry lobbying and following trade negotiations with the Trump administration \u2014 all in the hopes of attracting new investment into the struggling sector.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Shadow Trade Secretary Andrew Griffith was blunt in his assessment. \u201cAstraZeneca\u2019s a great British company but under this government it\u2019s investing everywhere in the world other than its U.K. home. When we are losing investment to communist China, alarm bells should be ringing in No 10 Downing Street.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Conspicuously absent from Starmer\u2019s haul was any mention of net zero infrastructure imports, like solar panels, a reflection of rising concerns about China\u2019s grip on Britain\u2019s critical infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>Xi returns<\/p>\n<p>So what next? As Starmer prepares to fly back home, attention has already turned to his next encounter with the Chinese leader.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday, Britain opened the door to an inward visit by Xi Jinping, with Downing Street repeatedly declining to rule out the prospect of welcoming him in future.<\/p>\n<p>Asked about the prospect of an inward visit \u2014 which would be the first for 11 years \u2014 Starmer\u2019s official spokesperson told reporters: \u201cI think the prime minister has been clear that a reset relationship with China, that it\u2019s no longer in an ice age, is beneficial to British people and British business.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As Starmer\u2019s trip draws to a close, one thing is certain: there is more to come.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis isn\u2019t a question of a one-and-done summit with China,\u201d Starmer\u2019s spokesperson added. \u201cIt is a resetting of a relationship that has been on ice for eight years.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Britain recently increased the amount the NHS pays for branded, pharmaceutical drugs, following heavy industry lobbying and following&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397432,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[45971,428,894,891,2980,11184,9608,141,1398,819,59,145,57,58,2960,2693,555,464,465,479,386,420,6235,10420,10269,118683,2363,1912,50,18905,29672,547,33413,3721,1351,1352,1338,473,156,426,56,54,158,55,11854,5926],"class_list":["post-397431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-andrew-griffith","tag-australia","tag-banks","tag-china","tag-companies","tag-critical-infrastructure","tag-david-cameron","tag-donald-trump","tag-education","tag-france","tag-gb","tag-germany","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-healthcare","tag-imports","tag-industry","tag-infrastructure","tag-investment","tag-italy","tag-japan","tag-keir-starmer","tag-lobbying","tag-manufacturing","tag-medicines","tag-medicines-manufacturing","tag-negotiations","tag-net-zero","tag-news","tag-peter-kyle","tag-regulatory","tag-research","tag-research-and-development","tag-rishi-sunak","tag-security","tag-services","tag-skills","tag-tanks","tag-tariffs","tag-trade","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-united-states","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-visas","tag-xi-jinping"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397431","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=397431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}