Donald Trump said it was very dangerous for the UK to do business with China as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer arrived in Shanghai on third day of his visit to country.
The US president was reacting to agreements aimed at increasing business and investment between UK and China announced after Sir Keir met Chinese President Xi Jinping.
UK business minister Sir Chris Byrant said Trump was wrong and it would be bonkers frankly for UK to ignore the presence of China on world Stage
USA President Donald Trump and Iran Presiden Ayatollah Khameni
Trump refer to Xi as friend of his and said he knew the Chinese president very well.
The US was UK mega single country trading partner in 2025.
China was fourth largest according to Department for Business and Trade.
The chair of British Chamber of Commerce in China Chris Torren praised Sir Keir visit to Beijing as successful.
Torrens told media it made sense for UK to be looking to China it is one mega trading partners.
He said other Western leaders had been to Beijing recently or would do so soon.
the USA 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 deal with China.
We expect this year Torrens told media.
Sir Keir arrived in Shanghai on Friday morning.
His last stop in china before leaving for Tokyo to meet Japanese counterpart.
Opposition MPs have criticized the PM over his trip to China the first by UK leader since 2018.
China has been accused of serious human rights violations by UN against the Uyghur population and other mostly Muslim ethnic groups.
Donald Trump and Starmer
Security Minister Dan Jarvis told Intelligence agencise had been integral to that decision making process and he was content any risks are being managed.
It has been criticised over treatment of Hong Kong Pro democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai who is facing life in prison.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said Sir Keir had gone to Beijing to Kowtow to President Xi and accused the government of trading national security for economic crumbs off chinese table.
Business Minister of UK said of course we enter into our relationship with China with our eyes wide open.
He refer that Trump is due to visit China himself in April.
In response to Trump remarks Downing Street refer that Washington had been aware of this trip and objectives in advance.
Arriving at the Premiere of the Melania movie on Thursday the US president was asked by reporter.
What do you think about the UK going into business with China.
Trump did not say anything further about UK engagement with China pivoting instead to Canada and delivering a similar threat.
He said it was even more dangerous I think for Canada.
Canada is not doing well They are doing very poorly and you can not look at China as answer.
The US president threatened to impose tariffs on Canada if it went through with economic deals struck with China on recent visit to Beijing by its PM Mark Carney.
The comments come after Sir Keir said UK relationship with China was in good strong place following his talks with Xi at Great Hall of People on Thursday.
Sir Keir said on Friday that very good meetings with Xi had provided just the level of engagement that we hoped for.
We warmly engaged and made some real progress actually because the UK has got mega amount to offer.
He told meeting of UK.
China Business Forum at Bank of China is Beijing.
Xi Jin Ping
The government says the inflatable dinghies used in small boat crossing often contain parts source in China.
Sir Keir trip consist of agreement on visa fee travel and lower whisky tariffs as well as 10.9 bn euro investment by AstraZeneca to build manufacturing facilities in China.
