What does Rachel Reeves's visit to China mean for the UK?

The Chancellor Rachel Reeves faced criticism for her visit to China as gilt yields surged.

Rachel Reeves meets China's Vice Premier He Lifeng
(Image credit: Aaron Favila - Pool/Getty Images)

In the face of criticism for travelling to China amid domestic “financial market turmoil”, chancellor Rachel Reeves insisted at a press conference in Beijing on 11 January that she would stick to the fiscal rules set out in the Budget in October, says Politico. Reeves wants to revive economic ties with China after “years of tension” with the previous Tory government over security concerns and human rights issues.

A healthy relationship with Beijing is “squarely in our national interest”, she said, as she announced agreements “worth £600 million to the UK economy over the next five years”. Writing in The Times, Reeves said, “We cannot ignore the fact that China is the second-largest economy worldwide and our fourth-largest trading partner, with exports supporting close to half a million jobs in the UK… Choosing not to engage with China is therefore no choice at all”. Both sides agreed to deepen cooperation across areas including financial service, trade, investment and the climate. Anglo-Chinese trade is currently worth more than £87 billion a year.

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Emily Hohler
Politics editor

Emily has worked as a journalist for more than thirty years and was formerly Assistant Editor of MoneyWeek, which she helped launch in 2000. Prior to this, she was Deputy Features Editor of The Times and a Commissioning Editor for The Independent on Sunday and The Daily Telegraph. She has written for most of the national newspapers including The Times, the Daily and Sunday Telegraph, The Evening Standard and The Daily Mail, She interviewed celebrities weekly for The Sunday Telegraph and wrote a regular column for The Evening Standard. As Political Editor of MoneyWeek, Emily has covered subjects from Brexit to the Gaza war.

Aside from her writing, Emily trained as Nutritional Therapist following her son's diagnosis with Type 1 diabetes in 2011 and now works as a practitioner for Nature Doc, offering one-to-one consultations and running workshops in Oxfordshire.