By Joe Cash
BEIJING, Jan 21 (Reuters) – Britain and China aim to revive a “golden era” trade dialogue when Prime Minister Keir Starmer makes a planned visit to Beijing next week, three sources familiar with the initiative said, with top executives from both sides expected to participate.
AstraZeneca, BP, HSBC, Intercontinental Hotels Group, Jaguar Land Rover, Rolls Royce, Schroders and Standard Chartered, are among the British firms that will join a renewed “UK-China CEO Council”.
The council was originally conceived by then-Prime Minister Theresa May and then-Premier Li Keqiang in 2018, during a period of bilateral ties dubbed the “golden era.”
The Chinese side will be represented by Bank of China, China Construction Bank, China Mobile, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Rail and Rolling Stock Corporation, China National Pharmaceutical Group, and BYD, among other companies, the sources added.
Negotiations have been ongoing for some time, but with Starmer’s visit largely contingent on Tuesday’s approval for China to build its largest embassy in Europe in London, talks have only just begun in earnest, the sources said.
Details such as the group’s official English-language name have yet to be resolved, one source said, with the British government reluctant to include “CEO” in the title, while the Chinese side plans to keep the same Chinese translation used in 2018.
All the sources warned that the threats of American President Donald Trump to acquire Greenland could hamper Starmer’s trip, while adding that with the embassy’s decision still so recent, other elements of the visit are still being finalised.
The English side could announce Starmer’s visit and schedule as soon as Friday, one of the sources said.
None of the sources could confirm which CEOs will attend, with one corporate source noting that their chief executive had declined, and could not be certain that the visit would continue.
Reuters contacted all the companies expected to attend for comment, as well as the British and Chinese foreign ministries, but none immediately responded.
BACK TO THE FUTURE
Starmer will make the first visit by a British leader since 2018, aiming to re-establish ties with the world’s second-largest economy after successive Conservative governments turned the UK from one of Beijing’s strongest supporters in Europe to one of its fiercest critics.
In a speech late last year, the leader of the Labor Party accused previous Conservative governments of “lack of duty” by allowing ties with Beijing to deteriorate, noting that French President Emmanuel Macron had visited China twice since 2018 and German leaders four times.