LONDON — Britain will not "pitchfork away" Chinese
investment, despite strained relations between London and Beijing, Prime
Minister Boris Johnson said in an interview published before a global financing
conference on Tuesday.
اضافة اعلان
Ties have frayed because of criticisms about China's crackdown on its Uyghur
minority and creeping authoritarianism in Hong Kong, a former British colony.
But Johnson stressed Britain would not be "naive" over China's
access to
critical national infrastructure (CNI) like nuclear
power stations and superfast 5G networks.
Britain, which hosts the COP26 UN climate summit next month, will later
unveil foreign investment totalling £9.7 billion ($13.3 billion, 11.4 billion
euros) to support green economic growth.
"I'm not going to tell you the UK government is going to pitchfork away
every overture from China," Johnson said in an interview with Bloomberg
published late on Monday.
"China is a gigantic part of our economic life and will be for a long
time — for our lifetime.
"But that does not mean that we should be naive in the way we look at
our critical national infrastructure — you mention nuclear power, you mention
5G technology — those are all legitimate concerns for any government."
Johnson added that the UK would retain a "cautious" approach over
China, which the government has described as a "systemic competitor"
but a key player in tackling international issues such as climate change.
"We should be cautious about how we handle our CNI and about how we
handle FDI (foreign direct investment) from China ... that is why we have
brought in some of the legislation that we have," he added.
He insisted trade links would continue to grow, despite tensions over the
controversial AUKUS defense pact with Australia and the United States, which is
widely viewed as a response to a rising China in the Indo-Pacific region.
"I am no Sino-phobe, very far from it. China is a great country, a
great civilization," Johnson added.
"In spite of all the difficulties, in spite of all the difficult
conversations about the Dalai Lama or Hong Kong or the Uyghurs — where we will
continue to stick to our views — trade with China has continued to expand for a
very long time."
As well as the Uyghurs and Hong Kong, claims of espionage and cyberattacks
have strained relations between London and Beijing.
Britain also stoked Chinese anger last year by banning Chinese telecoms
group Huawei from involvement in its 5G network after the United States raised
spying fears.
It is reportedly nearing a deal with France's EDF to force China's
state-owned nuclear firm CGN to offload its stake in the Sizewell C nuclear
power station in eastern England.
CGN is meanwhile working alongside EDF in the construction of a new nuclear
power plant at Hinkley Point, in southwest England.
Read more Business
.jpg)
.jpg)
