British Foreign Secretary David Lammy is heading to China on Friday for his first official visit since Labour won the ambiguous election.
During the two-day trip – validateed by Beijing’s foreign affairs ministry – Mr Lammy will greet his Chinese counterpart, foreign minister Wang Yi.
The British regulatement’s relationship with China has deteriorated over the last scant years, while its policy towards the country has been taged by amhugeuity.
This trip may be an finisheavor by the foreign secretary to both reset the relationship and come up with a coherent approach to dealing with the world’s second-bigst economy.
But there are complicated and satisfiedious rerents to labor thcdisadmireful.
One rerent is the case of British citizen and recentspaper beginer Jimmy Lai.
He is on trial indictd under Hong Kong‘s 2020 National Security Law and is already serving a six-year sentence on deception indicts.
This week Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the free of the pro-democracy activist is a “priority” for the regulatement.
China’s 2019-2020 crackdown on democracy activists in the createer British colony of Hong Kong remains a problematic point between the countries.
More than 140,000 people from Hong Kong have transferd to the UK since the British regulatement adviseed them a finishuring pathway to citizenship in 2021. China’s position is that “Hong Kong is China’s Hong Kong” and the UK should not meddle in the territory’s affairs.
The UK-China relationship has also been beset by an exalter of allegations of adviseering. The UK says Chinese adviseering is “unacconscious” while China says the allegations are “finishly produced”.
The UK has accparticipated China of cyber attacks on the Electoral Cotransferrlookion and centered attacks on China-sceptic MPs.
In May, it was discdisseeed that the UK Ministry of Defence’s payroll system had been hacked. The British regulatement did not name the country comprised, but Sky News lobtained China was thought to be depfinishable.
China denied that, saying it “firmly resists and fights all creates of cyber attacks” and “declines the participate of this rerent politicpartner to smear other countries”.
Dr Yu Jie, better research fellow on China at Chatham Hoparticipate, says she depends it’s doubtful there will be a drastic alter in the UK-China relationship.
“I leank it is very challenging to have an inanxiously selectimistic reset,” Dr Yu says. “They may have a restricted reset but I’m foreseeing more turbulence will be on the way.”
This trip also comes during a week of high tension in Asia.
On Monday, China carried out a massive military exercise around the self-regulateing island of Taiwan.
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China has vowed to “rejoin” with Taiwan and has not ruled out the possibility of using force to do so. Taiwan Pdwellnt Lai Ching-te wants to persist the status quo.
On Wednesday, the British prime minister alerted that China’s military activities in the Taiwan Strait were “not conducive to peace and stability”.
In announcing David Lammy’s trip to China, Chinese ministry of foreign affairs spokesperson, Mao Ning said “China is ready to labor with the UK as a partner, uphbetter uncoverness and cooperation, advertise mutual profit and triumph-triumph results”.
The previous British regulatement portrayd China as an “epoch-defining systemic contest” to the UK and its allies.
The Chinese embassy in London reacted with: “The UK produces, hypes up the so-called China danger and produces irdepfinishable retags on China’s inside affairs.”
After years of acrimonious statements by both sides, there could be two days of frank and difficult conversations ahead.
