Keir Starmer had been desperate to squeeze in a trip to China for some time. Xi Jinping had made it clear there would be a joint press conference with himself and Starmer. The meeting between Starmer and Xi had been scheduled to last 40 minutes. Starmer might not have been able to restrain himself from offering the Chinese a return state visit to the UK. He had known the previous year that it had been a mistake to offer Donald Trump a state visit on their first meeting.