By Joe Cash
BEIJING, Jan 21 (Reuters) – Britain and China will aim to revive a “golden era” business dialogue when Prime Minister Keir Starmer visits Beijing next week, three sources familiar with the initiative said, with top company executives from both sides invited to participate.
AstraZeneca, BP, HSBC, Intercontinental Hotels Group, Jaguar Land Rover, Rolls Royce, Schroders and Standard Chartered, are among the British firms set to join a revamped “UK-China CEO Council,” said the sources, who are both Chinese and British.
The council was originally conceived by then-Prime Minister Theresa May and then-Premier Li Keqiang in 2018, during a period of ties both sides dubbed “a golden era”.
The Chinese side should be represented by Bank of China, China Construction Bank, China Mobile, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation, China National Pharmaceutical Group and BYD, among other companies, the sources – a mixture of officials and businesspeople – added.
LONDON EMBASSY GREEN LIGHT CLEARS WAY FOR VISIT
Negotiations have been under way for some time. But with Starmer’s visit largely contingent on approval for China to build its largest embassy in Europe in London – a green light it received on Tuesday – talks have only just begun in earnest, they said.
Details such as the group’s official English-language name still need to be settled, one person 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.
Premier Li Qiang, China’s second-ranking official, should be Beijing’s representative, if the talks go ahead, they added. The British side could announce the visit and Starmer’s schedule as soon as Friday, that same person said.
All of the sources cautioned, however, that U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to acquire Greenland could derail Starmer’s trip, adding that, with the embassy decision still so recent, other elements of the visit were still being finalised.
None of the people could confirm which CEOs would attend, with one businessperson noting their company’s chief executive had declined, unable to be sure the visit would proceed.
Reuters contacted all of the companies expected to attend for comment, but none immediately responded.
STARMER WORKING TO RESET TIES WITH CHINA
A visit by Starmer would be the first by a British leader since 2018, with his administration aiming to reset ties with the world’s second‑largest economy after successive Conservative governments shifted the UK from being one of Beijing’s strongest backers in Europe to one of its fiercest critics.
In a speech late last year, the Labour prime minister accused previous Conservative governments of a “dereliction of duty” by allowing ties with Beijing to deteriorate, noting French President Emmanuel Macron had visited China twice since 2018 and German leaders four times.
Neither China nor Britain has officially announced Starmer’s visit. The British embassy in Beijing said the prime minister’s travel would be announced in the usual way. China’s foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
Commercial ties soured after the UK banned China’s Huawei from its 5G networks in 2020, and in 2022 British lawmakers led a taxpayer-funded buyout of China General Nuclear Power Corporation’s (CGN) stake in a nuclear plant being developed by France’s EDF.
CGN was part of the original CEO council, but along with Huawei, is unlikely to join the revamped group, one of the sources said, citing political sensitivities in the UK over Chinese firms’ role in the country’s critical infrastructure.
At the council’s first meeting in 2018, China’s Li said its aim was to “fast-track two-way investment and expand bilateral trade in a healthier, more balanced direction,” according to a readout published by the China International Contractors Association, one of the initiative’s organisers.
(Reporting by Joe Cash; Editing by Michael Perry and Joe Bavier)
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