British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer held a respectful discussion with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the imprisonment of pro-democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong and the treatment of China's Uyghur Muslims during their meeting in Beijing, as reported by Sky News citing Starmer's statement between 6:16 AM and 9:16 AM UTC on January 29, 2026. Starmer described the exchange as respectful, according to the Sky News post shared on X at a timestamp within this three-hour window. The discussion builds on their earlier meeting earlier today, where Xi urged rising above differences for world peace and Starmer called for a more sophisticated UK-China relationship, per prior Politics UK reports. No further details on Xi's response to the human rights topics were provided in the new source. The meeting video from the earlier session, shared by Politics UK, highlighted commitments to improved bilateral ties amid global challenges.
