Latest news with #UKChinaRelations
Free Malaysia Today
16-05-2025
- Business
- Free Malaysia Today
UK names son of ex-Hong Kong governor as ambassador to China
Mandarin speaker Peter Wilson is a senior diplomat who has held the posts of ambassador to Brazil and the Netherlands. (EPA Images pic) LONDON : Britain named the son of a former governor of Hong Kong as its new ambassador to China today, weeks before London is due to release an audit of its relations with Beijing. Peter Wilson, a Mandarin speaker, is a senior diplomat who has held the posts of ambassador to Brazil and the Netherlands, director-general for Europe at the foreign office and principal private secretary to the prime minister under Boris Johnson. Reuters first reported his selection as future ambassador to China in February. His father David Wilson was governor of Hong Kong, then a British colony, from 1987-1992. 'For my country, China has always been as much an opportunity as a threat, and I think that remains true today,' Peter Wilson told a panel at the Asia Society in 2017. Britain's Labour government aims to boost diplomatic engagement with China after years of tensions under previous Conservative governments over human rights, Hong Kong and restrictions on investment. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has also been pursuing post-Brexit trade deals to boost a stagnant economy. He struck a tariff-lowering deal with US President Donald Trump last week, cast by Beijing as a move that could squeeze Chinese products out of Britain. Preparations are being made for Starmer to visit China this year, Reuters has reported, the first such visit by a British leader since 2018. An audit which Starmer's government says will be the first in-depth appraisal of Britain's relationship with China is expected to be released in early June, according to sources.
Daily Mail
14-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Report: China criticizes US-UK trade deal
Published: | Updated: That is understood to mean preventing the UK becoming a 'backdoor' for China to export into America. The intervention underlines the headaches for Keir Starmer in navigating tensions between major economic powers. A clearly angry premier replied: 'I think she just said a tiny tariff deal. Can I suggest she gets the train to Solihull, two hours, go to speak to the workforce at JLR (Jaguar Land Rover), their families, their communities, to tell them she would rip up the deal that protects their jobs. 'And when she's done that she might travel across to Scunthorpe and tell the steelworkers there she's going to rip up the deal that saves their jobs, and then if she's got time she can go up to Scotland and talk to the whisky distilleries, tell them she'd rip up the deal that's creating 1,200 jobs for them, boosting their exports, and then come back here next week and tell us what reaction she got.' In a statement report by the Financial Times, Beijing's foreign ministry said: 'Co-operation between states should not be conducted against or to the detriment of the interests of third parties.' Relations between London and Beijing have thawed under Labour, with a resumption of high-level engagement following years of little contact under the previous Tory administration. Chancellor Rachel Reeves visited the country in January, saying agreements worth £600million to the UK over the next five years had been reached on the trip. The deal agreed between Britain and the US removes the 25 percent tariff rate on UK steel and aluminum exports in exchange for giving America's agricultural industry greater access to British markets. American levies on British cars fall from 25 percent to 10 percent for the first 100,000 vehicles exported to the US. However, a 10 percent baseline tariff on most goods remains in place. A Government source said it was 'for other countries to determine what is in their national interest' and that the UK 'continues to be open to investment from a wide range of countries including China.' A Government spokesman said: 'This Government signed a deal with the US in the national interest to secure thousands of jobs across key sectors, protect British businesses and lay the groundwork for greater trade in the future. 'In line with our long-term, consistent approach, trade and investment with China remain important to the UK. We are continuing to engage pragmatically in areas that are rooted in UK and global interests and co-operate where we can, compete where we need to, and challenge where we must.'
