Trump says 'very dangerous' for UK to do business with China after Starmer visit

Donald Trump warned the UK it was “very dangerous” to do business with China, comments made in Washington just hours after Prime Minister Keir Starmer lauded the economic relationship during a landmark visit to Beijing. Starmer, the first British prime minister to travel to Beijing in eight years, held three-hour talks with Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People and said the UK’s relationship with China was in a “good, strong place”.

He promised a “more sophisticated” relationship and told a UK-China Business Forum at the Bank of China that “we warmly engaged and made some real progress, actually, because the UK has got a huge amount to offer,” while securing improved market access, lower tariffs and investment deals.

In Washington, replying to questions about Starmer’s economic reset, Trump said: “Well, it’s very dangerous for them to do that.” His remarks, the report says, could create nerves inside Downing Street given the US president’s unpredictability and long-held hostility towards China, although one official said the US had been aware of the trip and the UK’s objectives in advance.

Trump added comments about Canada, saying it was “even more dangerous, I think, for Canada. Canada is not doing well. They’re doing very poorly, and you can’t look at China as the answer,” and said: “President Xi is a friend of mine, I know him very well.” The piece notes Trump is expected to visit Beijing himself in April and that the US is China’s biggest single trading partner.

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