Foreign Sec-China Visit About Re-Establishing Lines Of Communication

(MNI) London - Speaking in Beijing, UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly states that his trip, "Is about re-establishing lines of communication." The visit is the first to China by a British foreign secretary since Jeremy Hunt in 2018. Cleverly: "We are clear-eyed about the areas where we have disagreements with China and I raise those. [...] We have to have a pragmatic relationship with China."

• Cleverly held talks with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng and is will talks to Foreign Minister Wang Yi today as well. Han: “Your visit to China this time will further promote the sound and stable development of bilateral relations between China and the UK, [...] The economic and trade relations featuring mutual respect and pragmatic cooperation between us will certainly see new progress.”
• Han: "...it is important that countries like ours need to speak face to face on regular occasions to enhance understanding, to avoid misunderstanding and to address the challenges and differences of opinion that all countries have on bilateral relations, but also to take advantage of our shared endeavours to address the issues that affect our world, and our respective peoples,”
• Within the UK, the gov'ts strategy of attempting to improve relations with Beijing has come in for criticism from the opposition centre-left Labour Party as well as China hawks within PM Rishi Sunak's centre-right Conservatives. The strategy marks a sharp shift from those of Sunak's immediate predecessors, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, who both advocated for a much harder line on China relations.