From Burnham to PRC, avoiding hard choices is Starmer doctrineWhether at home or abroad, the British prime minister’s pattern of ducking difficult arguments and calling it pragmatism is the sameBy Rafael Behr / The GuardianThere comes a point in a prime minister’s career when foreign travel offers respite from domestic trouble. Next comes the phase where missions overseas feel dangerous because plotters can organize more openly against absent leaders. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is in transit between those two zones of decline. Starmer justifiably thinks the first visit by a UK prime minister to China since 2018 is a bigger deal than some story about weaponization of the party rulebook to block a potential challenger. Starmer dismisses the call for “performative” condemnations that would achieve only loss of influence with a superpower.

Source: Taipei Times January 29, 2026 17:44 UTC