British Prime Minister Keir Starmer begins a three-day visit to China on Wednesday, where he will defend London's "pragmatic" partnership with the Asian giant after years of fraught relations.

It will be the first visit to Beijing by a UK prime minister since 2018 and follows a string of Western leaders courting Beijing in recent weeks, pivoting from a mercurial United States.

Originally published on doc.afp.com, part of the BLOX Digital Content Exchange.