The Guardian-Lammy plans China visit for September to kick-start high-level engagement
August 10, 2024 3 min 569 words
英国《卫报》报道，英国工党政府外交大臣戴维拉米计划于9月访华，以开启两国高层接触。拉米在老挝与王毅外长会晤时表达了与中方合作的意愿，但同时面临在人权问题上对中方施压的预期。报道提及中英关系的“审计”，以及工党政府可能采取的改善与中方关系的措施。然而，英国此前曾因人权问题制裁中国，导致两国关系紧张。报道援引英国政府内部人士和政策顾问的意见，认为工党政府应重启与中国的接触，并提到中方的态度可能也是希望借工党胜选之机改善两国关系。 评论：该报道试图呈现英国工党政府改善与中方关系的意愿，但同时也体现出西方媒体一贯的偏见。报道过分强调人权议题，并试图以此作为评判中英关系的标准，而忽略了两国关系中更为复杂的多方面因素。此外，报道中提及的“审计”和“重置”关系也显示出西方媒体一贯的傲慢与自负，认为西方价值观高于其他国家文化与传统，并以此作为评判他国行为的标准。然而，中国有句古话：“各扫门前雪”，每个国家都有自己独特的文化传统和国情，处理内部事务的方式也各不相同，不应被外部势力所干涉。
David Lammy is planning a visit to China in September that would fall within the first 100 days of him taking office.
The foreign secretary is in talks over a trip to Beijing next month that would signal the UK wants to resume high-level engagement with the country.
No date has been officially confirmed. A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) spokesperson said: “Foreign secretary travel will be confirmed in the usual way.”
Lammy had planned to travel to China while Labour was still in opposition earlier this summer, but his trip was postponed when the general election was called. After Labour won the election, Lammy met China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, at a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations on 26 July.
The FCDO said that, at the meeting in Laos, the foreign secretary “set out that the government would cooperate where we can, compete where needed and challenge where we must”.
Lammy will come under pressure to take a robust stance on human rights. As shadow foreign secretary in 2023, he reaffirmed Labour’s position that it would take steps to recognise China’s treatment of Uyghurs as genocide.
China has imposed sanctions on seven parliamentarians, including the Labour peer Helena Kennedy, for criticising its human rights record.
Whitehall is carrying out an “audit” of UK-China relations, which Labour’s manifesto said would aim to “improve the UK’s capability to understand and respond to the challenges and opportunities China poses”.
The last foreign secretary to visit China was James Cleverly in August 2023. The Conservative government came under pressure from hawkish backbenchers to take a robust stance on China.
A senior British source working on UK-China relations said: “Under the Conservatives, with the exception of the one Cleverly visit, there was no senior-level engagement with China.
“If you look at Starmer’s foreign policy messages you have a reset with Europe and he’s talked about reconnecting with the rest of the world. If that doesn’t include China, then it doesn’t count as reconnecting with the rest of the world.”
Ruby Osman, a policy adviser on China at the Tony Blair Institute, said: “Despite having their own – sometimes more serious – differences with Beijing, the US, France, Germany, Australia and Italy have all still had head-of-state meetings with President Xi.
“Meanwhile, the UK has seemed almost uniquely uncomfortable with engaging with China in the past few years. We’ve had just three ministerial visits in five years, with little to show. Labour’s challenge will be shifting the mood in Westminster back to a recognition that engagement doesn’t have to mean agreement.”
Osman added: “David Lammy has been setting the stage for greater engagement since well before the election … There’s also likely to be a lot of appetite from the Chinese side to boost engagement. Beijing’s aim will be to use the election as a reset in relations after a rocky few years.”
Catherine West, now a Foreign Office minister, travelled to China last spring for meetings with senior government officials. She said at the time she had raised Labour’s concerns about Chinese interference in British democracy and national security, underlining that “this is something we will act on in government”.