{"id":120160,"date":"2024-08-23T16:18:12","date_gmt":"2024-08-23T16:18:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/23\/honest-talks-needed-sir-keir-starmer-tells-chinas-xi-jinping\/"},"modified":"2024-08-23T16:18:12","modified_gmt":"2024-08-23T16:18:12","slug":"honest-talks-needed-sir-keir-starmer-tells-chinas-xi-jinping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/23\/honest-talks-needed-sir-keir-starmer-tells-chinas-xi-jinping\/","title":{"rendered":"Honest talks needed, Sir Keir Starmer tells China&#8217;s Xi Jinping"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/9d86\/live\/c30a6670-6163-11ef-ad84-69850814563e.png?resize=1024,576&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Honest talks needed, Sir Keir Starmer tells China&#8217;s Xi Jinping\" title=\"Honest talks needed, Sir Keir Starmer tells China&#8217;s Xi Jinping\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-component=\"text-block\">\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">Sir Keir Starmer has told China&#8217;s President Xi Jinping he hopes they can have &#8220;open, frank and honest&#8221; talks about areas of disagreement, in the first official call between the two.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">The call was also the first between Mr Xi and a British prime minister since he spoke to Boris Johnson in  March 2022.  <!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">The two leaders discussed potential areas of co-operation, including on trade, the economy and education, a No 10 spokesperson said. <!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">&#8220;As permanent members of the UN Security Council, the leaders agreed on the importance of close working in areas, such as climate change and global security,&#8221; they added.  <!-- --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-component=\"text-block\">\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">&#8220;The leaders also agreed on the need for a stable and consistent UK-China relationship, including dialogue between their respective foreign and domestic ministers.&#8221;<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">China&#8217;s embassy in the UK said President Xi congratulated Sir Keir on taking office, and said the two countries needed to &#8220;view their relations from a long-term and strategic perspective&#8221;.<!-- --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div data-component=\"text-block\">\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">In a statement, it added: &#8220;China is committed to building a great country and achieving national rejuvenation on all fronts through a Chinese path to modernisation, and follows a path of peaceful development.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">&#8220;It is hoped that the UK will view China in an objective and rational manner.&#8221;<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">Foreign Secretary David Lammy met Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on the sidelines of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations gathering in Laos last month.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">He urged China to stop its companies supporting Russia&#8217;s war effort, and stressed the UK&#8217;s &#8220;ironclad&#8221; commitment to backing Ukraine. <!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">Sir Keir&#8217;s conversation with Mr Xi comes amid a period of strained relations between London and Beijing over espionage allegations and China&#8217;s tightening control over former UK colony Hong Kong.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">However, the two countries remain major trading partners as well as permanent members of the UN Security Council.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">China was Britain&#8217;s fifth largest trading partner in 2023, according to UK statistics, but diplomatic relations were icy under former PM Rishi Sunak.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">Soon after taking office in October 2022, Mr Sunak declared an end to the so-called &#8220;golden era&#8221; of UK-China relations trumpeted by former Prime Minister David Cameron.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">He also described China as a &#8220;systemic challenge&#8221; to UK values.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">In 2021, China <!-- --><a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-56532569\" class=\"sc-c9299ecf-0 bZUiKB\" rel=\"noopener\">imposed<!-- --><\/a> sanctions on nine UK citizens, including five Conservative MPs.<!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">In 2023, the UK Parliament <!-- --><a target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-politics-65055712\" class=\"sc-c9299ecf-0 bZUiKB\" rel=\"noopener\">banned<!-- --><\/a> TikTok, the Chinese-owned social media app, from being accessed on its wi-fi over security concerns. TikTok has denied claims it passes on users&#8217; data to the Chinese government. <!-- --><\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-eb7bd5f6-0 fYAfXe\">In April, UK police charged two men under the Official Secrets Act with spying for China.<!-- --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cwy7wdyrd42o\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sir Keir Starmer has told China&#8217;s President Xi Jinping he hopes they can have &#8220;open, frank and honest&#8221; talks about areas of disagreement, in the first official call between the two. The call was also the first between Mr Xi and a British prime minister since he spoke to Boris Johnson in March 2022. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120161,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/9d86\/live\/c30a6670-6163-11ef-ad84-69850814563e.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[7940,45579,17310,3959,24495,1170,3960,66,2312],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120160"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120160"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120162,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120160\/revisions\/120162"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}