David Lammy is in China on a mission to reset relations with Beijing. But the Foreign Secretary has also pledged to raise some difficult subjects with his hosts. For a politician who heavily criticised the Conservatives’ approach to China, it’s not clear that Lammy is coming up with anything new now he’s in office.
Lammy has talked up the difficult issues he will raise with Beijing
When Lammy was shadow foreign secretary, he was brave on China. Only last year, he agreed that China’s actions in Xinjiang were genocide and pledged to ‘act multilaterally with our partners’ to pursue a legal reckoning for Beijing. A few months later, he lambasted the Tories for inconsistency on its China approach: ‘What we can’t have is six positions on China’.
But Lammy – whose rhetoric on China has softened considerably – seems to have forgotten that pledge. Just over three months into the new Labour government, it’s hard to tell what has really changed on Britain’s approach to China. Instead of the ‘protect, align, engage’ mantra of Rishi Sunak’s government (protect British interests, align with China where possible and engage where necessary), Labour have offered a word salad of their own. The ‘three Cs’ – cooperate, challenge and compete – doesn’t seem so different in substance. Gone is any mention of the ‘G’ word regarding Xinjiang, and despite the promise of an extensive, cross-government ‘China audit’ that will set the direction of China policy, Lammy landed in Beijing earlier today for a two-day visit before the audit has delivered its conclusions. What, then, is the point of the audit?
Just like the then-Foreign Secretary James Cleverly did when he visited China last year, Lammy has talked up the difficult issues he will raise with Beijing. Its human rights abuses in Xinjiang and other regions; its threatening behaviour in the Taiwan strait; its supply of dual-use components that Russia is using in its war effort. But what these fierce talking points can’t hide is that the point of the trip is to start a conversation with China, not to berate it like a schoolchild. The government is introducing itself to Beijing and hopes that the process will lead to more collaboration on issues aligned with its agenda, such as in green energy and economic growth.
If any major difference can be spotted, it is in fact that Labour has more room to manoeuvre a softer approach to China – and more need to do so. As Katy Balls wrote in last week’s Spectator, the Labour party is not as packed with China hawks (or MPs sanctioned by Beijing) as the Conservatives. The voices who had forced a reluctant Boris Johnson into banning Huawei – Tom Tugendhat, Iain Duncan Smith et al – are now relegated to the opposition benches. This week, they have protested Lammy’s visit in outrage, but Starmer and Lammy don’t need to listen.
When it comes to the state of the British economy, the Chancellor Rachel Reeves hardly wants to turn away any opportunities for growth right now. The internal cabinet rows over the difficult decisions coming up in the Budget, reported this week, only underline that more. While China’s economic growth is slowing, it is nevertheless the UK’s fourth largest trading partner. So when it comes to decisions what to do about the Chinese fast fashion giant Shein’s mooted flotation on the London Stock Exchange, which is valued at £50 billion, Reeves is unlikely to say no. (Intriguingly, I hear that it might, in fact, be Beijing who scuppers the deal; the Chinese Communist Party doesn’t want its companies getting too far from its own grip).
Labour’s ministers are discovering that the pressures of government are worlds apart from the freedoms of opposition.
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