Welcome to the Chinese Embassy

I have had one encounter with the Chinese state—and it left me feeling that our countries will never be true partners

by Jay Elwes / August 4, 2016 / Leave a comment

Dozens of protesters stand outside London's Chinese Embassy to show support for students and workers in Hong Kong on October 11, 2014. The demonstration followed the announcement of Hong Kong's government on Friday October 10, 2014 to call off a meeting with student leaders of the pro-democracy movement. Last week thousands of demonstrations in Hong Kong left the city paralyzed and shed international light on the issues affecting education. NEWZULU/PHILIP ROBINS

Protesters stand outside the Chinese Embassy in London ©Philip Robins/Newzulu/PA Images

The Chinese government has hinted that if Britain does not give the go-ahead to the Hinkley Point nuclear power station in Somerset, then it will revise its future plans for investment in the UK. China is a part investor in the Hinkley project, along with the French government-owned company EDF and both are keen for the project to go ahead. But, as Prospect has reported the project is beset by problems of scale, funding and reactor design. These questions have caused Theresa May to pause the project so that the government can review the situation. Remarks made today suggest that the Chinese government is willing to use its proposed investments in Britain over the next decade as a lever to make sure the project goes through. The Times reported today that the Chinese government wants the project to start “as soon as possible.” Last week, the Chinese state news agency Xinhua said: “The new British government is actually running the risk of dampening the hard-won mutual trust with China.” China is planning many tens of billions of pounds’ worth of investment in Britain, as well as Hinkley.

Only a year ago, things were very different. In 2015, when President Xi Jingping visited London for a state visit, a Treasury statement announced that £30bn worth of commercial deals had been completed during the visit. These, the government suggested, would create over 3,900 jobs in the UK. Who could possibly pour cold water on such economic benefits? The economic logic of China, with its surplus, investing in deficit-ridden Britain has an irresistible symmetry. But in cosying up to the Chinese, promising investment opportunities and a safe financial haven for off-shore trade in the Chinese currency, did we go too far? Can Britain and China ever be true partners?

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Comments

Alyson
August 4, 2016 at 13:47
What we say and what people whose first language is not English think we mean is not the same thing, as shown in this article that was published in The Telegraph a couple of years ago. Hence their persistence in the face of the polite refusal to run the propaganda piece. Idiomatic English is occasionally abstruse. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/10280244/Translation-table-explaining-the-truth-behind-British-politeness-becomes-internet-hit.html
Antony P.
August 14, 2016 at 01:45
The true test of Chinese intent is always the likelihood of reciprocity. In this case, would a Chinese current affairs magazine (let's say, for example, Caixin) be likely to publish a dogmatic and partisan article by the British Ambassador to China, simply because the British Embassy request it to? Of course not. One might apply a similar test to the Hinckley power station, with similarly revealing results.

Jay Elwes