UK making up China policy ‘as it goes along’, MPs warn

Keir Starmer visited China in January, the first trip by a British prime minister since Theresa May travelled there in 2018. Photograph: Carl Court/Reuters View image in fullscreen Keir Starmer visited China in January, the first trip by a British prime minister since Theresa May travelled there in 2018. Photograph: Carl Court/Reuters UK making up China policy ‘as it goes along’, MPs warn Commons committee says lack of coherent strategy is hampering business and leaving national security risks unaddressed The UK is making up policy on China “as it goes along” and risks having its strategy dictated , a parliamentary report has concluded. An investigation , innovation, science and trade select committee said Labour’s failure to formulate a coherent strategy since 2024 “combined the worst of both worlds” for the UK in relation to China. Liam Byrne, Labour MP and chair of the committee said the UK’s policy on China meant it was also endangering its business with the EU with the risk of being “cut off” from big manufacuring contracts. The government could neither deliver commercial opportunities to British businesses nor control the “increasing exposure to unquantified, managed risk” in relations with China, it found. The report said: “In 2024, the new government promised a strategic, long-term, consistent UK approach to China. It has not delivered on this. “Britain must shape its own relationship with China or risk having that relationship shaped for us in Washington or Beijing.” The UK’s relationship with China has been marked by a lack of engagement in the last 10 years, with Keir Starmer making the first official visit in January since Theresa May in 2018. That trip was billed as an effort to end the “diplomatic ice age”, but since 2018 China has benefited from an export boom that is now fuelling fears about deindustrialisation, adding to deep-seated existing concerns about cyber espionage and national security. UK’s ‘incoherent’ approach to China plagued , report says The MPs acknowledged the advantages of trading with Beijing in their report, noting that British businesses have profitable operations in China and “are ambitious to grow” and learn from the country’s “world-leading” innovations. At the same time, consumers benefit from low-cost imports when household incomes are squeezed, with electric vehicles being a case in point. However, Byrne sharply criticised the government’s piecemeal approach. “Britain’s businesses cannot plan for the future when the government keeps making up its China policy as it goes along. “Ministers promised clarity and consistency.