US President Donald Trump has described it as “very dangerous” for the United Kingdom to increase business engagement with China, as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer arrived in Shanghai on the third day of his official visit to the country.
Trump made the remarks while attending the premiere of a documentary about his wife, Melania Trump, after being asked about agreements announced following Starmer’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“Well it’s very dangerous for them to do that,” Trump said.
In response, Downing Street signalled that Washington had been aware of the trip and its objectives ahead of time.
No 10 also noted that Trump himself is expected to visit China in April.
Trump did not expand further on the UK’s relationship with Beijing, but turned his attention to Canada, warning it faced an even greater risk.
“It’s even more dangerous, I think, for Canada,” he said, adding: “Canada is not doing well.
They’re doing very poorly, and you can’t look at China as the answer.”
Despite the warning, Trump referred to Xi as a “friend” and said he knew the Chinese leader “very well.”
The comments follow earlier threats by Trump to impose tariffs on Canada if it pursued economic agreements reached with China after a recent visit to Beijing by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Starmer, meanwhile, said the UK-China relationship was in a “good, strong place” after talks with Xi at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Thursday.
Speaking on Friday, he described the meetings as productive and said the level of engagement matched what the UK had hoped for.
“We warmly engaged and made some real progress, actually, because the UK has got a huge amount to offer,” Starmer said at the UK-China Business Forum hosted at the Bank of China in Beijing.
Several agreements have emerged from Starmer’s trip, including plans for visa-free travel, reduced whisky tariffs, and a £10.9 billion investment by AstraZeneca to build manufacturing facilities in China.
The two sides also announced additional co-operation on issues such as organised crime and illegal immigration.
Official trade figures show the United States remained the UK’s largest single-country trading partner in 2025, while China ranked fourth, according to the Department for Business and Trade.
Chris Torrens, chair of the British Chamber of Commerce in China, described Starmer’s Beijing visit as “successful,” arguing that it was logical for Britain to deepen engagement with one of its major trading partners.
He also noted that several Western leaders have recently visited Beijing or plan to do so soon, including Trump.
“The US are maybe sanctioning and reprimanding other economies and slapping tariffs on countries that are doing deals with China but the US itself may well do a deal with China,” Torrens said.
Starmer’s final stop in China is Shanghai before travelling to Tokyo for a working dinner with Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.
However, the trip has drawn criticism from opposition lawmakers, who say the government is overlooking security risks and China’s human rights record.
China has faced international accusations of serious human rights violations against the Uyghur population and other mostly-Muslim groups, as well as criticism over the treatment of Hong Kong pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai, who faces a possible life sentence.
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp accused Starmer of “kowtowing” to Xi and claimed the government was trading “national security for economic crumbs off the Chinese table.”
Concerns have also been raised over the UK government’s recent approval of China’s plans for a major new embassy in central London.
Security Minister Dan Jarvis said intelligence agencies were involved in the decision and insisted risks were being managed appropriately.
