"I hope that this visit is a very positive one, that Britain comes away from it feeling this was worth the effort," Professor Kerry Brown, Director of the Lau China Institute at King's College London, has expressed cautious optimism that Prime Minister Keir Starmer's visit to China could reset a relationship that has veered erratically for nearly a decade.

"The problems that we are facing are global problems, and we need global solutions for global problems. Why not have APEC as a way to seek consensus, reach understanding, then use this understanding at the global level?"