{"id":282522,"date":"2025-04-15T12:59:06","date_gmt":"2025-04-15T12:59:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/15\/a-crisis-at-a-british-steel-mill-has-cast-a-shadow-over-u-k-china-relations-2\/"},"modified":"2025-04-15T12:59:06","modified_gmt":"2025-04-15T12:59:06","slug":"a-crisis-at-a-british-steel-mill-has-cast-a-shadow-over-u-k-china-relations-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/15\/a-crisis-at-a-british-steel-mill-has-cast-a-shadow-over-u-k-china-relations-2\/","title":{"rendered":"A Crisis at a British Steel Mill Has Cast a Shadow Over U.K.-China Relations"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/04\/15\/multimedia\/15int-uk-steel-china-pqvj\/15int-uk-steel-china-pqvj-facebookJumbo.jpg?ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"A Crisis at a British Steel Mill Has Cast a Shadow Over U.K.-China Relations\" title=\"A Crisis at a British Steel Mill Has Cast a Shadow Over U.K.-China Relations\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Britain has sent a parade of senior officials to China this year, part of a calculated charm offensive to thaw out relations with a country that looms large in a world order upended by the United States under President Trump.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But an emergency move by the British Parliament last weekend to <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/04\/12\/business\/british-government-steel-mill.html\" title=\"\">take control<\/a> of a Chinese-owned British steel mill has struck a discordant note amid all the diplomacy. And it could raise deeper questions about Prime Minister Keir Starmer\u2019s efforts to cultivate warmer ties with China, at a time when Mr. Trump\u2019s tariffs are sowing fears about protectionism and fraying trade agreements worldwide.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Britain acted to prevent the Chinese company that owns the plant, in the town of Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, from shutting down two blast furnaces, which could have shuttered the plant, cost 2,700 jobs and left Britain reliant on other countries for what it considers a strategically important commodity.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The government\u2019s fruitless negotiations with the company, which <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/news\/government-acts-to-save-british-steel-production\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">refused subsidies<\/a> to stay open, has prompted accusations of bad faith and even rumors of sabotage by the Chinese owner, which British officials rejected. But they are questioning whether other Chinese companies should be allowed to invest in sensitive industries.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWe have got to be clear about what is the sort of sector where actually we can promote and cooperate and ones, frankly, where we can\u2019t,\u201d Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, told Sky News on Sunday. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t personally bring a Chinese company into our steel sector.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Reynolds said the Chinese company, Jingye, had refused to order vital raw materials, knowing that this would lead to the closure of the mill, Britain\u2019s last big producer of crude steel, used in construction projects.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">On Monday, the government said it was confident it had secured the raw material needed to keep the furnaces burning, through two ships carrying iron ore and coking coal. But it has been left with a business that is reportedly losing 700,000 pounds, or $922,000, a day.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">China on Monday warned Britain not to politicize the dispute. A spokesman for the Chinese foreign ministry, Lin Jian, said the government should \u201crefrain from turning economic and trade cooperation into political and security issues, lest it should undermine the confidence of Chinese companies.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The dispute comes at an awkward moment for Mr. Starmer\u2019s government. It had set out to improve a relationship that had frayed in recent years because of China\u2019s crackdown in Hong Kong and allegations of Chinese cyberattacks that compromised the voting records of tens of millions of people.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Whatever the government\u2019s misgivings about China\u2019s human rights record or the security threat it may pose, it views better trade relations with China as an important ingredient in Britain\u2019s economic growth and a hedge against the protectionist policies of the Trump administration.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe question is whether ministers want to see it for what it is or prefer to downplay it in order not to increase tension between the U.K. and China in a turbulent time,\u201d said Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute in London. \u201cI think the balance is that ministers will choose the latter course.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, traveled to Beijing in January to drum up Chinese investment. She endured japes after returning with only 600 million pounds, about $791 million, in commitments, but it was a conspicuous sign of the government\u2019s new approach.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Last week, the chief of the defense staff, Admiral Tony Radakin, the top official in the British armed forces, traveled to Beijing for meetings with Chinese officials to strengthen military-to-military communication. He also delivered an address at the People\u2019s Liberation Army National Defense University in Beijing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-4\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Such visits almost recall the days of David Cameron, the Conservative prime minister who declared a \u201cgolden era\u201d of economic ties between Britain and China. In 2015, he took China\u2019s president, Xi Jinping, <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2015\/10\/23\/world\/europe\/xis-visit-to-britain-highlights-broader-shift-in-concerns-about-china.html\" title=\"\">out for a pint<\/a> at a 16th-century pub. By 2020, relations had soured, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson kept Huawei, a Chinese telecommunications giant, out of Britain\u2019s 5G network.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Even amid the recent exchanges, there have been bumps. Last week, officials in Hong Kong denied entry to a Liberal Democratic member of Parliament, Wera Hobhouse. She is a member of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, which has criticized the threat to free speech in Hong Kong. China\u2019s move came as a trade minister, Douglas Alexander, was on a visit to the city.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI think the government will look upon it as an inconvenience,\u201d Luke de Pulford, the executive director of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance, said of the dispute over the steel mill. \u201cFor a long time, there has been a dogma in the Treasury that China is going to rescue the British economy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But the government faces another delicate decision: whether to approve plans for China to construct a sprawling new embassy next to London\u2019s financial district. Residents and other critics have opposed it, saying that its proximity to major banks and brokerage firms could facilitate spying.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI know it\u2019s a diplomatic priority for the Chinese,\u201d Mr. de Pulford said, noting that Mr. Xi had raised it with Mr. Starmer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/04\/15\/world\/europe\/uk-china-steel-scunthorpe.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Britain has sent a parade of senior officials to China this year, part of a calculated charm offensive to thaw out relations with a country that looms large in a world order upended by the United States under President Trump. But an emergency move by the British Parliament last weekend to take control of a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282523,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2025\/04\/15\/multimedia\/15int-uk-steel-china-pqvj\/15int-uk-steel-china-pqvj-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[14,4122,168,734,164392,84420,14601,3096,3959,55307,164052,18167,5098,3960,1291,163261,218682,2762],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282522"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282522"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":282524,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282522\/revisions\/282524"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}