British foreign secretary flies into Beijing for first high-level summit in five years

Aug. 29 (UPI) -- Britain's top diplomat, James Cleverly, will touch down in Beijing on Wednesday on the first visit by a British foreign secretary in five years in an effort to kickstart a new approach to relations after a series of disputes over trade, security and values.

Cleverly will hold talks with his Chinese counterpart and top foreign policy adviser Wang Yi and Vice President Han Zheng to try to bolster communication channels in order to "advance and protect U.K. national interests including cyber, international security and human rights," the Foreign Office said in a news release.

But he will also look to work together with China on tackling major global issues such as climate change.

The visit follows the rolling out of a new three-pronged China policy centered on protecting against potential threats to security or prosperity from Beijing, cooperation with regional and global partners and engaging with China for the sake of a stable relationship.

Cleverly will raise the issue of human rights in Xinjiang province and Tibet and the erosion of autonomy, rights and freedoms in Hong Kong under the National Security Law, as well as other British interests, including the sanctioning of MPs who campaigned against Beijing's crackdown on Uighur Muslims in the country's far northwest.

Beijing was also angered by the visit to Taiwan in March of a group MPs which included a meeting with President Tsai Ing-wen amid a rise in British arms sales to the island which Beijing regards as a renegade province.

"It is important we manage our relationship with China across a range of issues. No significant global problem -- from climate change to pandemic prevention, from economic instability to nuclear proliferation -- can be solved without China," Cleverly said.

"China's size, history and global significance means they cannot be ignored, but that comes with a responsibility on the global stage. That responsibility means China fulfilling its international commitments and obligations".

Cleverly is set to tell his hosts that part of that was helping to end Putin's invasion of Ukraine, diffusing tensions in the South China Sea and "ceasing malign activity in cyberspace."

As the largest global investor in sustainable energy and the largest emitter of carbon, tackling climate change was impossible without China and the choices it made were critical to the ability of the rest of the world to do so.

In July 2020, the government ordered Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei be completely excluded from the nation's 5G mobile network within seven years amid growing security concerns that China may require Chinese technology companies to spy on its behalf.

Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said mobile network operators in Britain would be banned from purchasing Huawei equipment at the end of the year and required to remove existing Huawei communications infrastructure by 2027.