The Latest Breaking News from James Cleverly

The foreign minister set off with the aim of both ‘standing up for our values’ and securing profitable trade. He failed at both, says foreign policy commentator Simon Tisdall

In today’s newsletter: The UK foreign secretary met senior Chinese officials for talks in Beijing – was there anything to gain?

I have a theory. It’s probably not correct but I’m moonlighting as comment editor this week and there’s no time to check. The idea is that all prime ministers elevated from one of the great offices of state want to keep running that department from Number 10.

UK’s James Cleverly is latest to travel to Beijing hoping to improve ties and change Chinese foreign policy

Xi and Putin have hailed their ‘no-limits’ partnership in the past

After nearly five years without a senior cabinet minister visiting China, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly’s visit marks the re-opening of communications. However, we should not expect substantial improvement in the UK’s ties with China from just a single visit.

Britain’s China policy tells a tale of confusion. Long gone are the chummy images of David Cameron and Xi Jinping sampling local ales in Buckinghamshire. Yet the Government does not seem quite as keen as the United States to turbocharge “decoupling” or “derisking” from Beijing. Instead, it is pursuing a…

James Cleverly said that the UK was ‘clear-eyed’ that China would not change ‘overnight’.

Prime minister says he will give police more powers to confiscate knives and will make it illegal to possess certain weapons