4 minute read
Russia and China react to UK election result
from MONITOR 32
New UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s most pressing foreign policy problems look like being how to deal with Putin’s Russia and Xi’s China, Alistair Coleman reports.
Both Russia’s President Putin and China’s President Xi are looking to increase their global influence and the Labour government was quick to make its intentions clear regarding engagement with allies over threats from the East.
But there are already clues as to how Moscow and Beijing through their state-controlled media see a Starmer administration from their initial reactions to the election.
Russian media expects no change
Russian TV pundits on the day after the election seemed to rejoice at the Conservative defeat, but did not expect London’s “Russophobic course” to change under Labour.
Russia’s main TV channels said the result was a “miserable failure” for the Conservative party, saying that Brexit had been its only achievement in the 14 years of its rule.
TV pundits also dwelled on one of their pet subjects – that Russia is eternally the victim of nefarious British plots. On state-controlled Channel One, the election campaign was framed as Russia being a scapegoat. “This election, like politics in general in Britain in recent years, just can’t manage without an enemy figure in the form of Russia,” Channel One said.
Outlets and commentators suggested that London wouldn’t change its policies toward Russia, noting that Starmer’s stance on Moscow is essentially the same as Sunak’s. “For Moscow, his arrival in power changes nothing, since he takes anti-Russian positions and supports continued backing for Ukraine,” Gazprom-owned NTV said.
This view is illustrated by newlyappointed UK Defence Secretary John Healey travelling to Odessa to meet Ukraine’s president; but progovernment paper Izvestiya thought that the war was not at the front of British voters’ minds: “Political changes in Europe show that for the electorate, internal issues are becoming much more important than Ukraine.”
TV chat show host Olga Skabeyeva show summed up the Russian media’s mood: “In essence, one set of Russophobes replaces another”.
Russia’s main TV channels said the result was a “miserable failure” for the Conservative Party
China: Hoping for improved relations
China’s initial statements following the Labour victory were cautious, with its Foreign Ministry saying that Beijing “had noticed the results of the British election” and that “we hope to get Sino-UK relations along the right track”. Also cautious was state TV channel CCTV, which asked: “With six prime ministers in eight years, can Starmer clean up the UK’s mess?”
State-affiliated outlet The Paper similarly said the next government would face “the most challenging issues in 70 years”, and that “public dissatisfaction” might soon follow. However, state-run newspaper Global Times published a positive profile of the new PM, saying Keir Starmer is “not the inflammatory politician that people imagine”, and that media impressions of him are that he is “conscientious, good at management, and a little dull”. They also mentioned that he is an Arsenal fan.
After Premier Li Qiang had sent his congratulations to Downing Street, an English-language article in Global Times said that while the new Labour government might adopt a more “flexible and pragmatic” approach to China, it would have difficulty circumventing “long-standing fundamental issues”. Amongst these are tricky concerns surrounding security, human rights, Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Hoping to get things off to a positive start, Chinese media reflected their government’s hopes for a UK-Sino relationship which “jointly promotes world peace, stability, and prosperity”.
