"Keir Starmer had been desperate to squeeze in a trip to China for some time. Another country to tick off his list and he always feels a lot better about himself when he's abroad. Less noise from his unhappy MPs. Plus he loved the pomp and ceremony that came with it. The large flags. The military bands. A country that treated him with respect. Almost."
"Xi Jinping had made it clear there would be a joint press conference with himself and Starmer. Xi doesn't take well to answering hostile questions from the media. Instead there would just be a joint statement in which they mouthed mostly bland platitudes at one another. A way of filling dead air. Keir had quickly agreed. Any opportunity to prevent a possible diplomatic incident was fine by him."
"He would handle the British media in his own way. Taking a long time to say not very much. Words that would die within milliseconds of broadcast. As though his entire plan for the trip had been to get as little TV coverage as possible. An unusual strategy. But the only one that seemed to make any real sense. The meeting between Starmer and Xi had only been scheduled to last 40 minutes."
Keir Starmer pursued a China visit largely for prestige and to ease pressure from unhappy MPs. He relished pomp, ceremony and the respect shown during state occasions. Chinese hosts conditioned meetings on UK approval for a new embassy near the Tower of London. Xi Jinping insisted on a controlled public encounter: a joint statement of bland platitudes rather than a press conference facing hostile questions. Starmer agreed to limit media exposure and to avoid potential diplomatic incidents. He adopted a cautious communication strategy, favoring muted messaging and a brief, 40-minute bilateral meeting with little substantive public content.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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