diplomacy

Foreign Secretary James Cleverly visited China on 30 August – the first such visit by a UK Foreign Secretary for over five years – where he met for high-level talks with senior officials from the Chinese government Mr Cleverly met Chinese Vice President Han Zheng and Chinese Foreign Minister and Director of the Office of the Central Foreign and Affairs Commission Wang Yi in Beijing. For the meeting with Vice …

Former diplomat Lord McDonald, who played a key role in the “Golden Age” of UK-China relations, talks to Andy Mok about the ways in which both British businesses and the UK government should be approaching China in 2023. In the summer of 2022, Lord McDonald of Salford’s intervention in the Chris Pincher affair – accusing then Prime Minister Boris Johnson of being less than honest about his knowledge of Deputy …

How does China view the war in Ukraine? It poses many difficult questions for China’s diplomatic corps, writes Joe Cash. And while China is unlikely to intervene directly, its stance will still require careful diplomatic handling Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine presents China with its biggest foreign policy crisis in 20 years. In a similar way to when NATO forces accidentally bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade during the …

The UK’s Integrated Review mirrors many of the top priorities of China’s 14th Five-Year Plan, including cooperation in R&D and green development and more investment in these areas. The UK government published its long-awaited Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy on 16 March. The nearly 100-page long document, titled ‘Global Britain in a Competitive Age,’ outlines the government’s foreign policy strategy for the next five years as …

Despite the turbulence of recent months marked by Brexit and Covid-19, John Edwards, newly appointed HM Trade Commissioner for China, paints a positive picture of the future of trade relations between China and the UK Overseeing the Department for International Trade’s China arm, John Edwards has been busy in recent weeks managing the logistics of purchasing and transporting large volumes of medical supplies from China to the UK. But as …