China’s president took aim at Donald Trump for destabilising the world order during his talks with Sir Keir Starmer.
Xi Jinping said the current situation was volatile and risked descending into the law of the jungle unless major powers abided by international law.
He also told the Prime Minister that more dialogue was needed between his own country and the UK for the sake of world peace and stability.
President Xi did not mention Mr Trump by name. Despite their simmering trade war, his counterpart in the White House is due to visit Beijing in April before a reciprocal trip to Washington later in the year.
But President Xi’s comments were widely interpreted as referring to the US leader, who sparked outrage by raising the threat of using military force against Greenland in his desperate desire to seize control of the Nato ally.
President Trump has also sent an ‘armada’ of ships to the Gulf amid growing expectations that he will order air strikes on Iran, and this month his forces attacked Venezuela as part of an audacious mission to capture its leader, Nicolas Maduro.
And he has stoked a fresh war of words with his northern neighbour, Canada by posting images of it as American territory, as well as threatening it with 100 per cent tariffs if it agrees a trade deal with China.
The Chinese readout of President Xi’s talks with Sir Keir in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People stated: ‘Xi Jinping pointed out that the current international situation is complex and volatile.
‘As permanent members of the UN Security Council and major world economies, China and the UK need to strengthen dialogue and cooperation to maintain world peace and stability as well as to promote the economic and social development of both countries.’
In another thinly veiled reference to President Trump’s behaviour since he returned to power a year ago, the statement said: ‘Xi Jinping pointed out that unilateralism, protectionism, and power politics have been rampant for some time, severely impacting the international order. International law is only truly effective when all countries abide by it, and major powers, in particular, must take the lead; otherwise, they will regress to a jungle-like world.’
President Xi told Sir Keir that the world was in a ‘turbulent and fluid’ state. He said dialogue between the UK and China was ‘imperative’, whether it was ‘for the sake of world peace and stability or for our two countries’ economies and peoples’.
