Downing Street is courting business leaders to accompany Sir Keir Starmer on his first bilateral visit to Beijing even as a decision looms on whether to approve China’s controversial new embassy in London.
Sky News understands that officials have begun contacting corporate executives to gauge their appetite to join the prime minister on a trip slated to take place towards the end of the month.
The date of the visit has yet to be specified, but is expected after the World Economic Forum in Davos concludes on 23 January.
A number of business leaders who spoke to Sky News have expressed doubt that the trip will take place at all unless the embassy is approved.
The government has committed to delivering its verdict on or before 20 January, and reports in recent weeks have suggested that it will go ahead following a green light from Britain’s security services.
Business leaders have joined prime ministers on a series of bilateral visits to Beijing, including during the premiership of David Cameron, who hailed a “golden era” of relations between the two countries.
The last such occasion was in 2018, when Theresa May unveiled billions of pounds of business deals involving British and Chinese companies.
The relationship has cooled significantly in recent times amid geopolitical stresses, and there remain doubts over whether other bilateral economic forums between Britain and China will take place this year.
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“We had the golden age, which then flipped to an ice age,” the PM said in a speech last month.
“We reject that binary choice,” he said, adding that China was a “nation of immense scale, ambition and ingenuity” and “a defining force in technology, in trade and global governance”.
Downing Street declined to comment on the PM’s prospective visit to China, while the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, which is overseeing the embassy approval process, also declined to comment.
