Starmer, Carney, Orsi visit Beijing, China to strike deals

BEIJING — Countries that stayed away from China during the trade dispute with the United States are now sending their leaders to Beijing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and are eager to make business deals.

At least five national leaders, including British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, visited Xi in January alone. Uruguayan President Yamandú Orsi is expected to make this visit next week; It is the first trip by a South American leader since US President Donald Trump captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife in early January.

While the visits of Canadian and British leaders were the first in at least eight years, the visit of the Irish prime minister on January 5 was the first visit in 14 years. China closed its borders during the Covid-19 pandemic and only reopened them in earnest in early 2023.

“These visits reflect selective resets orchestrated under increasing U.S. policy uncertainty rather than a strategic orientation toward China,” said Yue Su, chief economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit.

“Keeping channels of communication with Beijing open is increasingly preferable to leaving,” he said, “especially as gains from selective resets with China become more visible and U.S. policy becomes less predictable.”

Since taking office 12 months ago, Trump has imposed tariffs not only on China but also on many US trading partners. In recent months, the United States has stepped up efforts to expand its influence in Venezuela, Iran and Greenland.

This is an opportunity for Beijing, which is trying to portray itself not only as a partner for developing countries but also as a stabilizing force for the world.

“Keeping distance from the United States shows that these countries value their ties with China’s large economy,” Cui Shoujun, an international studies professor at Renmin University of China, said in a telephone interview Thursday. he said. That’s according to CNBC’s translation of his statements in Mandarin.

Cui said Europe and other countries may still need to align with the United States on security issues, but they are now increasing their economic involvement.

Large business delegations often accompany national leaders on state visits. Nearly 60 British companies and cultural organizations sent representatives to accompany the British prime minister on his trip to China. British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca He used the state visit to announce investment plans $15 billion by 2030 in China.

Similarly, during Carney’s visit, Canada acknowledged: cut tariffs In exchange for lower Chinese tariffs on Canadian canola seeds, the tax rate on a limited number of Chinese-made electric cars was increased from 100% to 6.1%.

Global businesses are also eager to sell to China’s massive consumer market, which has long been the world’s second largest.

Chinese leaders called on visiting countries to create fair environments for Chinese businesses operating or investing locally. Many Chinese companies, such as electric car makers, have accelerated their global expansion plans as domestic growth slows.

Beijing is increasingly making clear its efforts to build technological self-sufficiency and maintain its place on the global stage.

Earlier this month, the head of the ruling Chinese Communist Party’s international relations department wrote: official party newspaper China’s modernization efforts are breaking the “Western-centered” model and offering developing countries a new option.

The five countries the leaders visited in January (Ireland, South Korea, Canada and Finland) have a combined gross domestic product of $8.71 trillion, which is now less than half of China’s $18.74 trillion GDP. World Bank figures for 2024. The US remains much larger, with a GDP of $28.75 trillion.

China became the first major economy to retaliate against Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs in April 2025. The two countries reached a fragile one-year trade truce in late October, and Trump is expected to visit China in April.

During Starmer’s visit, the American Chamber of Commerce in China hosted an appreciation dinner in Beijing on Thursday evening, which included representatives from the Chinese side. In his opening remarks, President James Zimmerman called on both Trump and Xi to create a vision for greater global stability.

The potential for the two leaders to meet up to four times this year is “a moment not to be missed for sustained leadership and meaningful progress,” Zimmerman said.

One opportunity for Trump and Xi to meet and attract other world leaders to China is the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum that China is hosting this year. The APEC forum will hold a meeting of senior officials in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou early next month, ahead of the main meeting of economic leaders in November.

But visiting leaders still need to strike a good balance in relations with China.

This week, Trump threatened 100 per cent tariffs on Canada if Ottawa “makes a deal” with China and said it was “very dangerous” for the UK to do business with China. French President Emmanuel Macron, saluting the interests of European industry He threatened China with taxes The day after he returned from his official visit in December.

“These trips are a hedging strategy,” said Jack Lee, foreign affairs analyst at consultancy China Macro Group.

“They are keeping the China channel open as a way to preserve the strategic option,” he said. But he warned that trust, especially between the EU and Beijing, remained limited.