(Bloomberg) -- Foreign Secretary David Lammy is considering making a visit to China, according to people familiar with the matter, as part of the new Labour government’s efforts to recalibrate the UK’s relationship with Beijing.
Plans for the trip — which would be only the second by a UK foreign secretary in the last six years — haven’t yet been finalized, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing internal deliberations. No date has been set, they added.
The Foreign Office declined to comment on the discussions.
Before becoming prime minister at the UK general election a month ago, Keir Starmer said his government would carry out what he described as an “audit” of UK-China ties as “one of the first things that we will do.”
Like its predecessors, in dealing with China Starmer’s Labour government wrestles with the dilemma of how to balance Britain’s economic and trade interests against its defense and security concerns. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni received a warm reception in Beijing late last month in a visit that underlined both the risks and benefits of engagement.
Meloni skirted around the usual European Union talking points by avoiding overt criticism of either her host’s support for Russia’s war machine or its overcapacity in key tech industries, according to public statements, although she did warn trade ties between Italy and China must be rebalanced.
The Lammy visit would be the first such trip by a British foreign secretary since James Cleverly traveled to China almost a year ago.
On that occasion the former foreign secretary was seeking a reset after a rocky few years in which China’s crackdown on democracy activists in Hong Kong and Britain’s resulting offer of visas for Hong Kongers marred relations already strained by the UK’s restricting Chinese involvement in critical national infrastructure.
More recently, tensions have ratcheted higher still. In May of this year, British officials said China was the likely culprit in a hack of UK armed forces personnel’s personal data. Just two months earlier, the UK had accused Chinese hackers of targeting politicians, companies and dissidents, as well as stealing troves of British voter data. Beijing denied all those allegations.
The UK government faces pressure from banks including HSBC Holdings Plc and Standard Chartered Plc to tone down new national security rules that would restrict doing business with China. The previous Tory administration sought to introduce them earlier this year but wasn’t able to pass the legislation before July’s election.
Lammy met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at an ASEAN meeting in Laos at the end of July. The two men “agreed to work towards building long-term communication channels,” the foreign office said at the time, noting Lammy had urged his counterpart to ensure Chinese companies weren’t supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Last month, the former NATO secretary-general appointed by Starmer to lead a strategic review of Britain’s defense posture said China posed a “deadly threat” to the UK. But six weeks ago, just before taking office, incoming Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds cautioned against a “binary” approach to Beijing.
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