UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer held talks in Beijing with Chinese President Xi Jinping on January 29. As the Year of the Horse approaches, Xi told Starmer that the horse represents the possibility of “taking the lead like a racing horse” and his visit was a sign of auspiciousness, signaling a new start in bilateral cooperation. Starmer’s four-day China visit is the first by a United Kingdom Prime Minister in eight years. Starmer's delegation included around 60 representatives from British businesses and cultural organizations that he said “represent the best of Britain”. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said that “both sides agreed that China and the UK should develop a long-term consistent comprehensive strategic partnership”.
Mutual trust is the foundation for the stable and long-term development of relations between countries, Xi said, adding that China follows the path of peaceful development and “will never pose a threat to other countries no matter how it grows and develops”. It is China’s cultural tradition to value harmony, and it pursues harmony without uniformity, Xi added. Xi said bilateral economic and trade cooperation is “win-win in nature”, and the two countries should carry out joint research and commercialization in fields such as artificial intelligence (AI), bioscience, new energy and low-carbon technologies. Xi also urged the British side to provide Chinese enterprises with a fair, equitable and non-discriminatory business environment.
President Xi said that the two countries should promote the establishment of a more just and reasonable global governance system, and achieve equal and orderly multi-polarization and inclusive globalization. “Major countries in particular should take the lead" in abiding by international law, or otherwise the world will return to the state of a jungle, Xi said. “As the relations went through a series of ups and downs over the past few years, Starmer’s visit sent a positive signal for the ties’ future growth,” said Cui Hongjian, Professor of European Studies at Beijing Foreign Studies University. Ding Chun, Director of the Center for European Studies at Fudan University, said: “Starmer's China visit is a part of the European countries' ongoing efforts to get closer to China, seek more opportunities for cooperation featuring stability, and recalibrate their position in the evolving multipolar world."
Chinese Premier Li Qiang and Starmer witnessed the signing of a number of cooperative documents covering areas such as economy and trade, agriculture and food, media, education and market supervision, the China Daily reports.
The South China Morning Post adds that British-Swedish pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca announced it plans to invest USD15 billion in China through 2030. The investment was the biggest deal announced during UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s trip to Beijing. It will support expanded medicines manufacturing as well as research and development (R&D). “The multibillion pound investment announced from AstraZeneca, alongside partnerships from some of our country’s leading universities, furthers research and development in the UK and helps power our world class life sciences sector,” said Starmer in the AstraZeneca statement. AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot described the investment as “an exciting next chapter” for the company in China, calling the country a growing force in scientific innovation, advanced manufacturing and global public health. The announcement comes as China builds its reputation as a pharmaceutical innovation hub. In December, U.S.-based SAI MedPartners and its unit Idea Pharma launched the China Pharmaceutical Innovation and Invention Index, a stand-alone benchmark measuring the R&D capabilities of Chinese drug makers.
China is AstraZeneca’s second-largest market by sales and an increasingly important R&D base, said Zhang Jialin, head of China healthcare research at Nomura. “That explains why we see it investing so heavily right now,” he said. Other healthcare analysts said the scale of the commitment also reflects China’s growing weight in the global pharmaceutical market. “It is one of the largest I have seen in China,” said Tony Ren, head of Asia healthcare research at Macquarie Capital. “China is the second largest national drug market in the world. Most large pharma companies want to have some presence.”
During PM Starmer's visit, the China-Britain Business Council and Suzhou in Jiangsu province also signed an agreement to create an innovation hub.
