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Sir Keir Starmer's visit to China brought agreements on visas, services, healthcare, green tech and finance.

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PM says trip to China has put relationship in stronger place, but possible return visit angers British critics
Keir Starmer has taken a big step towards rapprochement with China, opening the door to a UK visit from Xi Jinping in a move that drew immediate anger from British critics of Beijing.
During the first visit by a UK prime minister to China in eight years – a period which Starmer has described as an “ice age” – he said talks with the Chinese president had left the bilateral relationship in a stronger position.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain is seeking to promote economic ties for growth, offering China’s leader, Xi Jinping, a way to court one of America’s allies.

The Ming family ran scam compounds along the Chinese border with Myanmar in Shan state.

Keir Starmer says the move, announced during his trip to Beijing, will help support thousands of British jobs
Britain’s biggest drugmaker AstraZeneca is to invest $15bn (£11bn) in China, it announced during , just months after cooling on plans for expansion in the UK.
The Cambridge-based company said it would spend the money by 2030 to expand medicines manufacturing and research and development in China, where it already has a big presence. It includes the construction of a $2.5bn research hub in Beijing, which was announced last March.

Several deals have been struck so far but there does not appear to be a big bundle of investments worth billions
Keir Starmer will be pleased that he has secured several agreements to mark his visit to Beijing and by the warm tone of President Xi Jinping’s remarks about his government. However, No 10’s announcements do not put a figure on the value of the deals, and there does not appear to be a big bundle of investments worth billions by Chinese or British firms, which prime ministers have usually tended to hold up as a sign of success. These are the agreements secured by the UK so far.

Chinese leader bestows a little largesse on the British PM while getting the green light for London ‘mega embassy’
Let’s face it, this was never going to be a meeting of equals. Keir Starmer had been desperate to squeeze in a trip to China for some time. Another country to tick off his list and he always feels a lot better about himself when he’s abroad. Less noise from his unhappy MPs. Plus he loved the pomp and ceremony that came with it. The large flags. The military bands. A country that treated him with respect. Almost. Besides, Mark Carney and Emmanuel Macron had both made recent trips. He had seen their holiday photos. Now it was his turn. He couldn’t bear to be left out.
The Chinese? Not so much. They couldn’t really see the point. But they would schedule in a couple of meetings on the condition the UK government gave the green light to the new “mega embassy” near the Tower of London. Consider it done, said Keir. All systems go for the first prime-ministerial visit since Theresa May in 2018.

Downing Street gives no date for when the agreement of 30 days of visa-free travel will come into force
For more context on today’s Starmer-Xi meeting, China is the world’s second-biggest economy and Britain’s third-largest trading partner – to which it exports £45bn of goods and services a year – so it is no surprise the UK has turned to Beijing in its search for economic reliability.
As the Guardian’s political editor earlier today, the UK does not rank among the top 10 of China’s trading partners but the Beijing leadership has spied a political opportunity to improve links with one of Washington’s closest allies at a time of deep uncertainty in the transatlantic alliance.

PM praised for not pressuring Xi over his ties with Putin on a trip seen as business ‘taking precedence over politics’
Keir Starmer’s has been cautiously welcomed by Chinese state media as an act of economic pragmatism by a beleaguered British prime minister.
The presence of 50 business and cultural leaders with Starmer, who is the first British prime minister to visit China in eight years, was taken as a sign that the UK was prioritising its ailing economy over political considerations.

Keir Starmer held talks with the Chinese leader Xi Jinping this week and proclaimed Britain should have a more ‘sophisticated’ relationship with China. Pippa Crerar, who was with the prime minister on the trip, tells Kiran Stacey what all this means