UK lines up new ambassador to help rebuild China ties

By Kate Holton, Andrew MacAskill and Joe Cash

LONDON/BEIJING (Reuters) - Britain has lined up a Mandarin-speaking diplomat whose father was a governor of Hong Kong as the next ambassador to China, according to three sources, and he is expected to take up one of the most challenging roles in British diplomacy later this year.

Peter Wilson, who worked briefly as principal private secretary to former prime minister Boris Johnson and has served as the British ambassador to the Netherlands and Brazil, is expected to replace the current ambassador, Caroline Wilson, in the next few months, according to two of the sources.

The new appointment comes at a time when Britain's Labour government continues to step up its diplomatic engagement with China after years of tensions under successive Conservative governments over human rights, Hong Kong, and restrictions on investment over security concerns.

Peter Wilson previously worked at the British embassy in Beijing where he was political counsellor from 2007 to 2010 and as a more junior diplomat from 1995 to 1998, according to his biography on the foreign ministry's website.

His father, David Wilson, was the penultimate British governor of Hong Kong between 1987 and 1992.

Britain's foreign ministry declined to comment.

"At present, China-UK relations are showing signs of improvement and development... and the embassy has played an important and positive role in this process," Guo Jiakun, a spokesperson for China's foreign ministry, told a regular news conference on Friday.

British finance minister Rachel Reeves and foreign minister David Lammy have visited China in recent months. Prime Minister Keir Starmer is also expected to visit China later this year, sources said, in the first trip to the country by a British leader since 2018.

Last week, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi came to London for talks that revived a strategic dialogue between the two countries that had been on hold for more than six years.

Caroline Wilson, who speaks Mandarin among other languages, and Peter are not related.

She has had a challenging role as ambassador to China trying to improve ties with the world's second most populous country, while for most of her posting the Conservative government in London pursued a more hawkish tone.

In one incident, she asked the then British trade minister Liz Truss in a meeting why Britain could not treat China like it treats its close ally France, according to a person briefed on the discussion.

Truss responded saying the French were not committing genocide, a reference to China's alleged treatment of the Uyghurs in Xinjiang, the person said.

China has denied any abuses take place in Xinjiang.

After the conversation was leaked to the British press, a Chinese state-run newspaper called Truss "a radical populist" while some Conservative members of parliament called for Wilson to be replaced as the ambassador.

Peter Wilson served as Boris Johnson's closest nonpartisan aide in 2022 for six months after his predecessor resigned in the wake of a scandal over parties held in Downing Street that breached lockdown restrictions during the COVID pandemic.

He then served as the director general for Europe at the foreign office until August last year and worked on the delivery of the European Political Community meeting at Blenheim Palace last year.

(Additional reporting by Polina Devitt and Laurie Chen, writing by Andrew MacAskill, editing by Giles Elgood)