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By Joe Cash<\/p>\n
BEIJING, Jan 21 (Reuters) – Britain and China aim to revive a “golden era” business dialogue when Prime Minister Keir Starmer makes a planned Beijing visit next week, said three sources familiar with the initiative, with top \u200bexecutives from both sides expected to participate.<\/p>\n
AstraZeneca, BP, HSBC, Intercontinental Hotels Group, Jaguar Land Rover, Rolls Royce, Schroders and Standard \u200cChartered, are among the British firms set to join a revamped “UK-China CEO Council”.<\/p>\n
The council was originally conceived by then-Prime Minister Theresa May and then-Premier Li Keqiang in \u200c2018, during a period of ties both sides dubbed “a golden era.”<\/p>\n
The Chinese side should be represented by Bank of China, China Construction Bank, China Mobile, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Rail and Rolling Stock Corporation, China National Pharmaceutical Group, and BYD, among other companies, the sources added.<\/p>\n
Negotiations have been underway for a while, but with Starmer’s visit largely contingent on approval on Tuesday for China to build its largest \u2060embassy in Europe in London, talks have only \u200cjust begun in earnest, the sources said.<\/p>\n
Details such as the group’s official English-language name still need to be settled, one source said, with the British government reluctant to include “CEO” in the title, while the \u200dChinese side plans to keep the same Chinese translation used in 2018.<\/p>\n
All of the sources cautioned that U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to acquire Greenland could derail Starmer’s trip, while adding that with the embassy decision still so recent, other elements of the visit were still being finalised.<\/p>\n
The British side could \u200bannounce the visit and Starmer’s schedule as soon as Friday, one of the sources said.<\/p>\n
None of the sources could confirm which \u200cCEOs would attend, with one corporate source noting their chief executive had declined, unable to be sure the visit would proceed.<\/p>\n
Reuters contacted all of the companies expected to attend for comment, as well as the British and Chinese foreign ministries, but none immediately responded.<\/p>\n
BACK TO THE FUTURE<\/p>\n
Starmer is set to make the first visit by a British leader since 2018, aiming to reset ties with the world’s second\u2011largest economy after successive Conservative governments shifted the UK from one of Beijing’s strongest backers in Europe to one of its fiercest critics.<\/p>\n
In \u2060a speech late last year, the Labour party leader accused previous Conservative \u200bgovernments of a “dereliction of duty” by allowing ties with Beijing to deteriorate, noting \u200bFrench President Emmanuel Macron had visited China twice since 2018 and German leaders four times.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Commercial ties soured after the UK banned China’s Huawei from its 5G networks in 2020, and in 2022 British lawmakers led a taxpayer\u2011funded \u200dbuyout of China General Nuclear Power \u2060Corporation’s (CGN) stake in a nuclear plant being developed by France’s EDF.<\/p>\n
CGN was part of the original CEO Council, but along with Huawei, is unlikely to join the revamped group, one of the sources said, citing political sensitivities in the UK \u2060over Chinese firms’ role in the country’s critical infrastructure.<\/p>\n
At the Council’s first meeting in 2018, China’s Li said its aim was to “fast\u2011track two\u2011way investment and expand bilateral \u200ctrade in a healthier, more balanced direction,” according to a readout published by the China International Contractors Association, one \u200cof the initiative’s organisers.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Joe Cash; Editing by Michael Perry)<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n