Keir Starmer refuses to condemn Hong Kong crackdown

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Sir Keir Starmer has refused to publicly condemn the sentencing of 45 pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong for up to a decade in prison, as the UK prime minister seeks to forge a “closer economic partnership” with China.

Speaking at the end of the G20 summit in Brazil, Starmer said he had “frank” private discussions with Chinese President Xi Jinping during the event about civil rights crackdowns in Hong Kong, but he did not risk upsetting Beijing by repeating his concerns in public.

Asked by the Financial Times if he would condemn the legal crackdown on alleged “subversion” by leading academics, journalists and politicians in Hong Kong, Starmer declined.

“Where we have differences we have a frank discussion about them as we did yesterday about Hong Kong,” the prime minister said on Tuesday.

“What we must not do is lose the opportunity for our economy with a better partnership on when it comes to co-operating on economic and trade matters. We want that closer economic partnership, China is the second-biggest economy in the world.”

He added: “But that doesn’t mean we won’t have those differences and that doesn’t mean we won’t be frank about those differences. That’s the approach I took yesterday and will continue to take.”

Their bilateral session in Rio de Janeiro on Monday was the first face-to-face meeting between a British prime minister and the Chinese president since 2018, in a sign of a warming UK position towards Beijing.

Britain’s relations with Beijing have chilled considerably since Tory prime minister Theresa May met Xi in 2018. Under Rishi Sunak, relations continued to be chilly, with Tory China hawks urging the then-prime minister to take a robust stand.

Since taking office in July, the Labour government has pursued a friendlier relationship with China, with foreign secretary David Lammy visiting and both Starmer and chancellor Rachel Reeves expected to travel there next year.

Starmer’s allies say he has made a strategic decision that Britain cannot afford to have a fractious relationship with one of its biggest trading partners.

Britain has already hampered its trading relationship with the EU with Brexit, and now faces being caught in a transatlantic trade with incoming US president Donald Trump.

Starmer and Xi agreed in Rio that their bilateral relationship should involve “no surprises” in future, and the British prime minister said there would be a “new dialogue” with Beijing over shared challenges, such as climate change.

“Of course there will continue to be areas where we don’t agree, including their support for Russia’s war and on Hong Kong,” Starmer said. “But here too, we need to engage. The world is safer when leaders talk.”

Sir Iain Duncan Smith, former Conservative leader, criticised Starmer’s refusal to publicly criticise China’s civil rights crackdown: “He and his government are so desperate for trade they will turn a blind eye to all future atrocities.”