Keir Starmer played the China card in Rio – and sent a message to a hawkish Donald Trump

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/23/keir-starmer-played-china-card-in-rio-and-sent-message-to-a-hawkish-donald-trump
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Keir Starmer played the China card in Rio – and sent a message to a
hawkish Donald Trump
Simon Tisdall
The PM and other western leaders are cosying up to Beijing. If the
president-elect imposes punitive tariffs on Chinese imports, he will
give Xi the upper hand
Both were lawyers before they became politicians, but that’s where the
similarities between Keir Starmer and Richard Nixon end. The former US
president resigned in disgrace at the height of the Watergate corruption
scandal exactly 50 years ago. Britain’s prime minister may have been
unwise to accept free tickets from Arsenal FC – but he’s not in Nixon’s
league.
Except, perhaps, was there just a touch of Tricky Dicky about Starmer’s
meeting with China’s president, Xi Jinping, at last week’s G20 summit in
Rio de Janeiro? Watergate aside, Nixon is famous for his groundbreaking
1972 visit to Beijing, which opened the way to normalised relations
between the US and Red China.
Nixon’s surprise démarche had another purpose: to show the Soviet Union,
America’s cold war adversary, that the US and China could act in
alliance against Moscow, which broke with Beijing in 1961. Nixon’s move,
known as “playing the China card”, had significant geopolitical
consequences. Starmer, dealt a weaker hand, had no aces up his sleeve.
All the same, the prime minister’s eagerness to reset what, under
previous governments, became a very rocky relationship was striking.
Starmer said he sought “consistent, durable, respectful, predictable”
ties. “A strong relationship is important for both of our countries and
for the broader international community,” he said.
It was a pointed statement. Doubtless Starmer was thinking primarily
about boosting UK trade, investment and growth. But were his words also
designed, Nixon-style, to send a message to a third party – namely,
Donald Trump?
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