Donald Trump has described it as “very dangerous” for the UK to do business with China, as Prime Minister Keir Starmer arrived in Shanghai on the third day of his official visit to the country. Trump’s comments followed the announcement of several agreements aimed at boosting trade and investment between the UK and China, reached after Starmer met Chinese president Xi Jinping in Beijing. In response, Downing Street indicated that Washington had been aware of Starmer’s visit and its objectives in advance, and noted that Trump himself is expected to visit China in April. Speaking on Friday at a UK–China Business Forum hosted at the Bank of China in Beijing, the prime minister said the meetings had delivered “just the level of engagement that we hoped for”. According to the UK Department for Business and Trade, the US was Britain’s largest single-country trading partner in 2025, with China ranking fourth.