Britain defends its rapprochement with China…and Trump considers it “very dangerous.”

Yesterday, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer defended his visit to China as a way to rebuild mutual trust and strengthen trade relations with Beijing, while US President Donald Trump warned of a “very dangerous” rapprochement.

Starmer, speaking to Chinese and British business circles at the Bank of China, praised the “very friendly and very good” talks he had with Chinese President Xi Jinping the day before yesterday.

He stressed that these talks allowed “real progress to be made,” adding: “This is how we build mutual trust and the extremely important respect.”

This rapprochement between London and Beijing aroused Trump’s dissatisfaction in light of the escalating competition between the two largest economic powers in the world.

“It is very dangerous for them to do this,” the US President told reporters upon his arrival to attend the opening screening of a documentary about his wife, Melania.

In fact, Starmer, who visited Shanghai yesterday, before heading to Japan, is not leaving China with a package of major contracts and loud announcements. Rather, he has received some initiatives from Beijing, such as reducing customs duties on some exports and an agreement to cooperate in the field of combating immigration, the actual extent of which has yet to be verified.

Beijing also granted the United Kingdom a visa exemption for Britons who visit China for less than 30 days, which London considered a way to facilitate British businessmen’s access to economic opportunities available in the Chinese market.

In total, about 10 cooperation agreements were signed, the terms of which are still unclear, and the two governments agreed to conduct “a feasibility study to investigate the possibility of starting possible negotiations on a bilateral agreement in the services sector.”

The British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca also announced that it intends to invest $15 billion in China by 2030.

But Starmer’s primary goal from this visit was to search for engines to support the British economy exhausted by the consequences of “Brexit” and the escalating trade disputes in the world.

After years of tense relations during the era of his conservative predecessors, and in light of China’s tightening of its policy in Hong Kong and the mutual accusations between the two countries of espionage, Starmer has been seeking, since assuming power in 2024, to improve relations with Beijing, London’s third trading partner.

This is what prompted the Prime Minister to make this visit, according to his office, which also expressed openness to a visit by the Chinese President to the United Kingdom in the future.

Starmer’s spokesman did not close the door to such a visit in response to journalists’ questions, stressing that “relaunching relations with China is beneficial to the British people and British companies.” But such a possibility displeases the British conservative opposition, which accuses the Labor leader of being lenient towards Beijing.

It is noteworthy that Starmer is the first British Prime Minister to visit China since 2018, and the third senior Western official received by Beijing recently, after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and French President Emmanuel Macron.