When, in 2019, The Future of UK–China Relations was published, the clouds that were starting to gather on the horizon of UK–China relations since 2017 had started to thicken. Within a year, a storm broke out, and almost every aspect of the relationship was either disrupted, distorted, or simply destroyed. The first Trump presidency, from 2017, pushed for a harder, more deal orientated relationship with China to rebalance what the White House claimed were unfair trade surpluses in Beijing's favour. Europe was drawn into the argument, being whipped into line by the United States when it tried to pursue what it regarded as a more pragmatic, self-interested path in the summer of 2018. Despite key European leaders visiting Trump's officials, and courting the then Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on a visit to their continent, they had to draw in behind the US and support its demands for a better trade deal. Around the same time as the US and China finally reached agreement on better market access in early 2020, the Europeans finally agreed a joint Common Agreement on Investment after seven years of argument. That ended up failing to be ratified the next year by the European Parliament because of sanctions placed by the Chinese government on some of its members (a retaliation for sanctions placed on some of their officials connected with the Xinjiang issue).

The desire for a new, more balanced relationship was hardly something incompatible with the “Golden Era” approach that Britain had attempted after the State Visit of Xi Jinping to Britain in 2015.