The Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s official portraits upon his official appointment by His Majesty The King. (Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street / Open Government Licence v3.0/Wikimedia Commons)
(Bloomberg) -- UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged to challenge China on a range of disputes that have strained ties between the nations, raising the stakes for British foreign secretary’s planned trip to Beijing later this week.
Starmer told Parliament on Wednesday that Chinese “blockade” drills around Taiwan were “not conducive to peace and stability” and agreed that Hong Kong’s prosecution of former media mogul Jimmy Lai was politically motivated. The prime minister was pressed into making the critical remarks under questioning by his predecessor, Rishi Sunak, in the House of Commons.
“We will cooperate where we can as permanent members of the UN Security Council - issues like net zero, health and trade - compete where we have different interests, but challenge - the point he makes is absolutely right - where it’s needed to protect national security, human rights and our values,” Starmer said. “And we will put that challenge in.”
The questions from Sunak, who still leads the Conservative opposition for another couple of weeks, underscored the diplomatic and political challenge facing Foreign Secretary David Lammy as he makes the Labour government’s highest-level visit to China.
Successive UK administrations - including Sunak’s - have struggled to get ties on a firm footing in the wake of Beijing’s crackdown on dissent in the former British colony of Hong Kong.
Sunak sent his then-foreign secretary, James Cleverly, on a similar mission last year, only to have the resulting goodwill dashed by British allegations that China was behind hacks of the Electoral Commission and Members of Parliament. This time, Lammy is arriving on the heels of some of China’s most provocative military exercises around democratically run Taiwan.
On Tuesday, Bloomberg also reported that newly installed Labour ministers had been told by officials that Chinese state actors have made widespread, and likely successful, efforts to access British critical infrastructure networks. In Parliament on Wednesday,
Starmer denied a claim by Sunak that he had halted the implementation of the foreign-influence registration scheme, a proposal by the last administration to require those acting in Britain on behalf of foreign powers to declare their activity.
Starmer nonetheless pledged to raise Taiwan and other security concerns with Beijing. China has announced the
“The continued military activity in the strait is not conducive to peace and stability,” he said, adding that “stability in the Taiwan Straits is in all of our interests.”
The British premier said he agreed the prosecution of Lai, a British national was politically motivated. Lai, who is set to take the stand in November, is among the most high-profile target in Hong Kong’s crackdown on democracy activists, and could spend the rest of his life behind bars if convicted of foreign collusion.
“This case a priority for the government,” he said, calling for Lai’s release.
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