Keir Starmer's future Labour government will face challenges in navigating the tensions between the United States and China. President Donald Trump has expressed his desire to confront China directly and decouple the US economy from China's. This includes imposing tariffs on Chinese imports, which could also affect the UK. While the UK's relationship with China differs from that of the US, there are areas of discord between the UK and China, such as the issue of products from Xinjiang and the question of genocide [706d93bf].
The future Starmer government will have to decide whether to cut a deal with Trump to reduce or remove tariffs or retaliate and refuse to play his game. The UK could work on similar approaches with the US in areas such as biotech and pharmaceuticals. However, there are risks of extraterritorial enforcement of US policy against China, as seen in the case of Huawei telecoms equipment in the UK [706d93bf].
The article suggests three low-cost actions for the Labour government to consider. First, ruling out a free trade agreement with China. Second, vetoing China's bid to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. And third, increasing defense spending to 3% of GDP. These actions would help the Labour government carefully balance maintaining the "special relationship" with the US while protecting the UK's security and economic interests [706d93bf].