Xi meets Starmer; Services consumption work plan; Soccer corruption; Nvidia and China
We will likely hear about the January Politburo meeting on Friday. If the readout seems interesting I will be back in your inbox tomorrow.
There will be no newsletter Monday as I will be attending a memorial service.
Summary of today’s top items:
1. Xi meets Starmer - Xi met with United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Beijing Thursday. Starmer is now the second NATO and Five Eyes leader to meet with Xi in less than two weeks. So far Starmer has not made as stark a declaration of the changing world as Canadian PM Carney did, but Xi and his team must be very pleased with the opportunities arising with longstanding American allies. The visit validates China’s push for a “multipolar” world order. Xi’s comment that major powers must “take the lead” in upholding international law was clearly a thinly veiled swipe at the US.
Starmer’s visit marks a significant thaw in Sino-British relations. Xi framed the bilateral turbulence as serving neither nation’s interests, while praising the historical contributions of Labour governments—a not-so-subtle critique of the previous Tory administration’s hawkishness. Xi quoted Mao Zedong’s 1949 poem Reply to Mr. Liu Yazi when he used the line “Range far your eye over long distances 风物长宜放眼量” to say “one should take a long-term view” to look past current geopolitical frictions and adopt a long-term, “rational” view of the relationship. The full line is 牢骚太盛防肠断，风物长宜放眼量 Beware of heartbreak with grievance overfull; Range far your eye over long vistas.”
Xi and his team paired the rhetoric with specific economic rewards designed to highlight the benefits of “pragmatic” engagement. AstraZeneca committed to a $15 billion investment in manufacturing and R&D, while tariffs on Scotch whisky will be halved from 10% to 5%, a move expected to boost British exports by £250 million. British citizens may be granted 30-day visa-free access and the two sides agreed to a new intelligence-sharing pact targeting human trafficking networks and the supply chains for small boat engines. A feasibility study for a bilateral services agreement was also announced.
While Starmer said he did raise sensitive issues, including the imprisonment of Jimmy Lai and the war in Ukraine, they were clearly subordinate to the broader goal of economic renormalization.
A brief CCTV report on Xi’s opening remarks to Starmer includes language that did not make it into the CCTV Evening News report. That report used the informal “你 you” when Xi was talking to Starmer, the honorific you 您” when Starmer was speaking to Xi, along with some other flattery of Xi - “尊敬的习主席，如您所说 Respected President Xi, as you said”. Did the English side pick up on the linguistic status markers, and did Starmer actually say that in English?
Starmer also met Premier Li Qiang and NPC head Zhao Leji.
Yes I know it is the Daily Mail, but the UK media still has strong “fighting spirit” of its own, at least when it comes to partisan political attacks:
