Opinion | Britain can deliver on its domestic goals by working with China

In these and other areas, such as infrastructure, Starmer could always consider cutting China out of the picture, for security reasons or otherwise. But without China, implementation costs might be more expensive than they otherwise would have been, making Starmer’s agenda all the more difficult to achieve.

Part of Starmer’s goal is building a Britain that is more competitive, including against China. Beijing should support this push for its short- and long-term implications. Over the past decade, Britain has seen effectively zero net growth; this means that, should China wish to grow its economic engagement with the UK, someone else would need to lose out.

Should Britain return to a path of consistent growth, its bilateral trade volume with China could increase, even as UK leaders diversify the country’s trade network. This is probably what Chinese diplomats mean when they emphasise “win-win cooperation”.

“Progressive realism”, as advocated by Lammy, means that Britain will push for what it believes is right, but in a results-oriented way. In his victory speech, Starmer said his government will turn away from the era of domestic British politics as “noisy performance”. This should apply to Britain’s foreign policy too. Loud China-bashing won’t achieve any non-political goals, and will probably only lead to China digging in. Consistent and principled engagement with China has a long and proven history of success.

Britain once was a diplomatic powerhouse. Many practices in international dialogue, such as the Chatham House rule, were conceived here. Over the last century, the UK has slowly seen this tradition somewhat wither, as declining global influence and interests takes their toll. So far, British think tanks and research institutions are keeping the flame alive.

A global Britain cannot just be backed by economic and military weight, which aren’t the UK’s strengths anyway. Its greatest strength has long been its soft power and historical ties with countries around the world. The British foreign ministry should support the efforts of think tanks and academic institutions, but also step into the arena itself, carrying the torch from former foreign secretaries Lord Castlereagh, George Canning and Lord Palmerston, and show once more that Britain has a valuable, independent role to play on the global stage.

Hua Han is co-founder and secretary general of Beijing Club for International Dialogue

Jersey Lee is associate of Beijing Club for International Dialogue