David Lammy will make his first visit China tomorrow as Tories demand he takes a tough line.
The Foreign Secretary is due in Beijing for two days with the government committing to challenge the regime on human rights violations and the tensions over Taiwan.
Keir Starmer has outlined the approach as ‘co-operate where we can’, ‘compete where we have different interests’ and ‘challenge… where it is needed’.
However, Conservatives have urged a more robust stance, accusing ministers of dropping plans for a register of individuals and bodies ‘influenced’ by foreign states.
China held large-scale military exercises surrounding Taiwan and its outlying islands earlier this week, something Sir Keir said was ‘not conducive to peace and stability’.
At PMQs yesterday he said: ‘Stability in the Taiwan strait is in all of our interests.’
Setting out his wider approach to China, the premier said: ‘We will co-operate where we can as permanent members of the UN Security Council, on issues such as net zero and health and trade.
‘Compete where we have different interests, and challenge… where it is needed to protect national security, human rights and our values. We will put that challenge in.’
Under pressure from Rishi Sunak, Sir Keir committed to sanctioning ‘any Chinese business or individual involved in aiding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine’, and also confirmed that the government will continue to press the case of democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai.
Mr Sunak demanded to know why the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (Firs), designed to combat clandestine political activity by foreign agents in the UK, has yet to be implemented and why the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act has been put on hold.
But Sir Keir said it ‘isn’t correct’ to say the implementation had been halted, insisting the Government supports the security and intelligence services in ‘everything that we do and he knows that’.
Firs would require individuals to disclose who they are in an arrangement with, what activity they have been directed to undertake, and when the arrangement was made.
An update made to a Home Office factsheet in August said it was ‘no longer expected that the scheme’s requirements will come into force in 2024’.
During his trip, the Foreign Secretary is expected to meet Chinese officials in the country’s capital, as well as with British firms based in Shanghai.
Prior to Labour’s general election victory in July, Mr Lammy and PM Sir Keir Starmer blasted ’14 years of damaging Conservative inconsistency over China’.
They pledged to conduct an ‘audit’ of the UK-China relationship if they won power, in order to better understand the ‘challenges and opportunities’ posed by Beijing.
Mr Lammy has also been under pressure to meet another pre-election promise to declare China’s treatment of Uighur Muslims as a ‘genocide’.
His trip also comes amid a major row over Labour’s deal with Mauritius – regarded by China-sceptics as an ally of Beijing – to give up British sovereignty of the strategically important Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean.