Donald Trump has described it as “very dangerous” for the UK to do business with China, as Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrived in Shanghai on the third day of his official visit to the country.
Trump’s comments followed the announcement of several agreements aimed at boosting trade and investment between the UK and China, reached after Starmer met Chinese president Xi Jinping in Beijing.
Speaking to reporters at the premiere of a documentary about his wife Melania, Trump said: “It’s very dangerous” for the UK to engage economically with China, although he went on to describe Xi as “a friend” and said he knew the Chinese leader “very well”.
Beyond those remarks, the US president did not expand further on the UK’s engagement with China, instead pivoting his criticism towards Canada, which he described as being in an “even more dangerous” position. Trump recently threatened tariffs on Canada following economic discussions between Ottawa and Beijing.
In response, Downing Street indicated that Washington had been aware of Starmer’s visit and its objectives in advance, and noted that Trump himself is expected to visit China in April.
Starmer said the UK–China relationship was in a “good, strong place” following talks with Xi at the Great Hall of the People. Speaking on Friday at a UK–China Business Forum hosted at the Bank of China in Beijing, the prime minister said the meetings had delivered “just the level of engagement that we hoped for”.
“We warmly engaged and made some real progress,” Starmer said. “The UK has a huge amount to offer.”
Among the outcomes of the visit were an agreement to introduce visa-free travel for British visitors to China, a reduction in Chinese tariffs on UK whisky, and a £10.9 billion investment by AstraZeneca to build new manufacturing facilities in China. The two sides also announced further co-operation on issues including organised crime and illegal immigration.
According to the UK Department for Business and Trade, the US was Britain’s largest single-country trading partner in 2025, with China ranking fourth.
Chris Torrens, chair of the British Chamber of Commerce in China, described Starmer’s visit as “successful”, saying it made sense for the UK to engage with one of its major trading partners. He added that several Western leaders had visited Beijing recently or were planning to do so, including Trump.
Opposition MPs have criticised the prime minister’s visit, citing concerns over national security and China’s human rights record. China has faced accusations from the UN of serious human rights violations against Uyghur and other mostly Muslim ethnic groups, and international criticism over the treatment of Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp accused the government of “trading national security for economic crumbs”, while ministers have insisted that intelligence agencies are closely involved in assessing and managing any associated risks.
Starmer’s visit to China, the first by a UK prime minister since 2018, concludes in Shanghai before he travels on to Tokyo for talks with Japan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, underscoring the government’s broader push to rebalance economic and diplomatic ties across Asia.
