BEIJING: According to British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, Beijing and London wanted to have a pragmatic relationship, but London would remain "clear-eyed" about the areas where the two countries disagreed, Cleverly said on Wednesday.
After years of tension over security, investment, and human rights issues, Cleverly was making a long-awaited trip to China on Wednesday to try to start over.
The foreign secretary has argued that trying to isolate the second-largest economy in the world or address climate change without its input would be a mistake.
He stated to the broadcasters, "When we meet, we raise those issues because we are clear-eyed about the areas where we have fundamental disagreements with China."
"However, due to the issues that affect us all over the world, I think it's important to also acknowledge that we need to have a pragmatic, sensible working relationship with China."
Some lawmakers, including the former Prime Minister Liz Truss, are pressuring the British government to toughen its stance on China and declare the country a threat to British national security.
Shrewdly expressed endeavors to distil the relationship down to a solitary word or a short clip were in a general sense defective.
"It is a significant nation, it's a huge country, a powerful nation, and a convoluted nation, and in this way our relationship with China will fundamentally be comparably muddled and complex," he said.