Labour’s new approach to China 

The Foreign Secretary David Lammy will touch down in Beijing next week to pay his respects. Next year, Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, is expected to do the same.

We haven’t seen this level of deference to the Chinese Communist party since 2019. Back then, Philip Hammond heaped praise on his hosts. He endorsed their Belt and Road initiative – of Chinese-funded infrastructure spanning the globe – and promised British co-operation ‘as we harness the “Golden Era” of UK-China relations’.

That was the high-water mark of Anglo-Chinese collaboration. George Osborne and David Cameron had courted the Chinese hard. Boris Johnson, too, was initially tempted to follow a pro-Sino approach – backing Huawei for 5G access. But, under pressure from the US, he stepped back, concluding that China posed a substantial threat to the liberal global order. The Belt and Road initiative soon began to be seen as a Beijing power grab – a way to spread influence with strings attached. Then came the Hong Kong crackdown, more accusations of espionage, cyber attacks, human rights abuses – followed, of course, by the Covid pandemic. The UK-China relationship turned from warm to wary at best. ‘They tend to start off thinking there is a third way,’ says one Whitehall figure. ‘Then they realise you can’t negotiate with China.’

But Labour is looking afresh at what Beijing has to offer. For a government with growth as its central goal, the Chinese market is alluring. When money is tight, the world’s second-largest economy looks like a more appealing place to turn. China has plenty to invest in return.

Lammy’s trip should provide an indication of how far Labour is prepared to go to embrace Beijing. It has already been conducting a China audit, aimed at setting a general direction across government.