Donald Trump said it was “very dangerous” for the UK to deal with China, as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer continued his visit to Beijing to reset relations.
The US president was reacting to agreements aimed at increasing business and investment between the UK and China, announced after Sir Keir met Chinese President Xi Jinping as part of a three-day trip.
“Well it’s very dangerous for them to do that,” Trump said at the premiere of a documentary about his wife Melania when asked what he thought of Britain increasing business ties with China.
In response to Trump’s remarks, Downing Street indicated that Washington had been aware of this trip and its objectives in advance.
No 10 also pointed out the US president was due in China himself in April.
Trump did not say anything further about the UK’s engagement with China, pivoting instead to Canada and delivering a similar warning.
He said it was “even more dangerous, I think, for Canada”.
“Canada is not doing well. They’re doing very poorly, and you can’t look at China as the answer,” he added.
Trump earlier this week threatened to impose tariffs on Canada if it went through with economic deals struck with China on a recent visit to Beijing by its Prime Minister, Mark Carney.
The comments come after Sir Keir said the UK’s relationship with China was in a “good, strong place” following his talks with Xi at the Great Hall of the People on Thursday.
Sir Keir said on Friday that the “very good meetings” with Xi had provided “just the level of engagement that we hoped for”.
“We warmly engaged and made some real progress, actually, because the UK has got a huge amount to offer,” he told a meeting of the UK-China Business Forum at the Bank of China in Beijing.
So far several things have come out of Sir Keir’s trip including an agreement on visa-free travel and lower whisky tariffs, as well as a £10.9bn investment by AstraZeneca to build manufacturing facilities in China.
Agreements on further co-operation in other areas such as organised crime and illegal immigration were also announced.
