00:00Of my three predecessors, none held a single meeting with President Xi.
00:06For eight years, no British Prime Minister visited China.
00:11Eight years of missed opportunities.
00:14Meanwhile, Mr Speaker, over that period, President Macron visited China three times,
00:20German leaders four times, the Canadian Prime Minister was there a few weeks ago,
00:25and Chancellor Mertz and President Trump are both due to visit shortly.
00:31In this context, refusing to engage would be a derelict order.
00:40But the fact is, Mr Speaker, we can do two things at once.
00:46We can protect ourselves whilst also finding ways to cooperate.
00:51And it was in that spirit that we made this visit.
00:53I had extensive discussions over many hours with President Xi, Premier Li and other senior leaders.
01:02The discussions were positive and constructive.
01:06We covered the full range of issues, from strategic stability to trade and investment,
01:13opening a direct channel of communication to deliver in the national interest,
01:17enabling us to raise frank concerns about activities that impact our national security
01:24at the most senior levels of the Chinese system.
01:32Thank you, Mr Speaker.
01:33Of course Britain should engage with China.
01:35Even though the Chancellor wasn't allowed to go,
01:39even though they are an authoritarian state who seek to undermine our interests,
01:44even though they spy on us, sometimes within the walls of this building,
01:49even though they fund regimes around the world hostile to our country,
01:53they are a fact of life, a global power and an economic reality.
01:57So let me be clear.
02:00It is not the Prime Minister engaging with China that we take issue with.
02:04What we are criticising is his supine and short-termist approach.
02:09The Prime Minister looked like he enjoyed his trip.
02:12In fact, it looked like a dream come true for a man who was virtually a communist most of his life.
02:16Mr Speaker, apart from the Lovubu doll in his suitcase,
02:32and I hope he's checked it for bugs,
02:34he has come back with next to nothing.
02:37What did his trip achieve for Jimmy Lai?
02:40Nothing.
02:41Did China promise to stop fuelling Putin's war machine in Ukraine?
02:44Doesn't sound like it.
02:45What did this trip achieve for the Uyghurs who are being enslaved?
02:49Absolutely nothing.
02:50Have China agreed to stop their relentless cyber attacks?
02:54Have they?
02:54We all know the answer to that.
02:56The reality is that China showed its strength
02:59and Britain was pushed around, literally.
03:03Her reply this afternoon seems to be
03:05that we should engage with China, but not engage with China.
03:10That what we should do, instead of leader-to-leader discussions
03:14where we raise all the opportunities
03:16and the difficult issues, each and every one of them,
03:19instead of those meeting leader-to-leader meetings,
03:22should go bag of sand and put a head in it
03:24and influence absolutely nothing.
03:26They're so unserious about world affairs.
03:29banana-to- Możah
03:33Very much, sir.
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