Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has arrived in Beijing, the primary British chief to make an official journey to China since 2018, after he mentioned he believes he can unlock enterprise alternatives there regardless of safety considerations.
A chartered British Airways jet carried the Prime Minister to Beijing in a single day — allegedly to maintain Chinese language spies away from the Prime Minister’s personal authorities airplane — for the primary of a three-day journey to China, which the Labour chief hopes will thaw relations after what he referred to as an “ice age”.
The hurried journey was solely formally introduced by China on Tuesday and appears to be one thing of a reward for Starmer after the British authorities pressured by permission for Beijing to construct a brand new “mega-embassy” in London simply final week. The brand new advanced, which would be the largest embassy in Western Europe as soon as accomplished, has been the topic of intense criticism over spying and nationwide safety fears, however was signed off on nonetheless by considered one of Starmer’s authorities ministers.
BEIJING, CHINA – JANUARY 28: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrives on January 28, 2026 in Beijing, China (Picture by Carl Court docket/Getty Photos)
Whereas the UK’s home intelligence company MI5 mentioned it believes any dangers from the brand new mega-embassy could possibly be mitigated to an appropriate stage, the highest spooks have nonetheless repeatedly warned of the menace Chinese language intelligence poses to Britain. And there seems to be some mitigation underway on this journey, with The Instances reporting that Prime Minister Starmer and “his whole crew” have been issued with single-use “burner” cellphones and laptops for his or her China journey in case they’re secretly compromised whereas within the communist nation.
Certainly, it’s acknowledged that “no authorities tools in any respect will probably be taken to the nation over considerations about Chinese language Communist Get together snooping”. Former Safety Minister and International Affairs Committee chair Tom Tugendhat claimed this even prolonged to the selection of plane. Whereas nationwide flag provider British Airways is a part of the delegation of 60 UK companies accompanying the Prime Minister to Beijing, and the journey could also be past the single-leg vary of the federal government’s medium-haul non-public airplane, Tugendhat acknowledged swapping the state Airbus for a chartered civilian flight was to confound Chinese language spies.
He wrote: “…they’re taking a burner airplane! The federal government jet is staying dwelling as a result of it could have to be guarded around the clock to cease China placing bugs on it.”
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