David Lammy: Foreign secretary faces complicated and contentious issues on China visit

British Foreign Secretary David Lammy is heading to China on Friday for his first official visit since Labour won the general election.

During the two-day trip – confirmed by Beijing’s foreign affairs ministry – Mr Lammy will meet his Chinese counterpart, foreign minister Wang Yi.

The British government’s relationship with China has deteriorated over the last few years, while its policy towards the country has been marked by ambiguity.

This trip may be an attempt by the foreign secretary to both reset the relationship and come up with a coherent approach to dealing with the world’s second-largest economy.

But there are complicated and contentious issues to work through.

One issue is the case of British citizen and newspaper publisher Jimmy Lai.

He is on trial charged under Hong Kong‘s 2020 National Security Law and is already serving a six-year sentence on fraud charges.

This week Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the release of the pro-democracy activist is a “priority” for the government.

China’s 2019-2020 crackdown on democracy activists in the former British colony of Hong Kong remains a problematic point between the countries.

More than 140,000 people from Hong Kong have moved to the UK since the British government offered them a permanent pathway to citizenship in 2021. China’s position is that “Hong Kong is China’s Hong Kong” and the UK should not meddle in the territory’s affairs.

The UK-China relationship has also been beset by an exchange of allegations of spying. The UK says Chinese spying is “unacceptable” while China says the allegations are “completely fabricated”.

The UK has accused China of cyber attacks on the Electoral Commission and targeted attacks on China-sceptic MPs.

In May, it was revealed that the UK Ministry of Defence’s payroll system had been hacked. The British government did not name the country involved, but Sky News learned China was thought to be responsible.

China denied that, saying it “firmly opposes and fights all forms of cyber attacks” and “rejects the use of this issue politically to smear other countries”.

Dr Yu Jie, senior research fellow on China at Chatham House, says she believes it’s unlikely there will be a drastic change in the UK-China relationship.

“I think it is very hard to have an extremely positive reset,” Dr Yu says. “They may have a limited reset but I’m expecting more turbulence will be on the way.”

This trip also comes during a week of high tension in Asia.

On Monday, China carried out a massive military exercise around the self-governing island of Taiwan.

Read more from Sky News:
Police investigate possible Russian involvement in Birmingham fire
Harriet Harman warns ministers must ‘accept’ budget cuts
Weight loss drugs could help with alcohol addiction

China has vowed to “reunify” with Taiwan and has not ruled out the possibility of using force to do so. Taiwan President Lai Ching-te wants to maintain the status quo.

On Wednesday, the British prime minister warned that China’s military activities in the Taiwan Strait were “not conducive to peace and stability”.

In announcing David Lammy’s trip to China, Chinese ministry of foreign affairs spokesperson, Mao Ning said “China is ready to work with the UK as a partner, uphold openness and cooperation, promote mutual benefit and win-win results”.

The previous British government described China as an “epoch-defining systemic challenge” to the UK and its allies.

The Chinese embassy in London responded with: “The UK fabricates, hypes up the so-called China threat and makes irresponsible remarks on China’s internal affairs.”

After years of acrimonious statements by both sides, there could be two days of frank and difficult conversations ahead.