British Steel should be the “canary in the coalmine” that forces ministers to remove Chinese companies from critical infrastructure, they have been told.
The government was forced to take direct control of the company amid concern that its Beijing-based owners would not keep the plant running at Scunthorpe. Ministers feared the company planned to “sabotage” the site to increase British reliance on cheap Chinese imports, The Times understands.
There is alarm over Chinese involvement in other areas of critical infrastructure, such as nuclear power plants.
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UK Government insiders believe that steps taken by Jingye, the Chinese owner of British Steel, were intended to stop Britain producing its own virgin steel and force it to rely on imports from China. The steps included refusing to order new raw materials, selling the materials it had and rejecting offers from ministers to help stem losses at the Scunthorpe plant.
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Sir Christopher Chope, a Tory MP, told Times Radio that shutting down British Steel was “exactly what [Jingye] wanted to do”. He said: “They’re building a new steel production facility in China, and what they wanted to do was to use that production facility to supply the UK market. And indeed, this was an attempt at what I think is best described as industrial sabotage.”
Chinese companies have gained a foothold in telecoms, security equipment, and nuclear and green energy projects. Analysis published in January found Chinese businesses had funded or provided parts for at least 14 of 50 British offshore wind projects. Companies owned by the Chinese government had large stakes in three projects that produce enough energy between them to power up to two million homes. Chinese Generation Nuclear Power remains a lead developer in plans for the Bradwell B nuclear plant in Essex.
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While i agree.
This whole article is based on nothing but gueaes and suspicion.
China has no duty or moral obligation to run british steel infrastructure at a loss. And if the UK wants to keep the plants running (at £700k a day while not being able to sell that ateel. Its rather presumptuous to expect chinese companies to do it when UK ones were nott able to do so profitably.
Nationalise and accept that is the cost of keepinflg a steel inferstructure when most of the developed world is also so and selling steel cheap.
Anything else is expecting china to fund our steel at a loss to their own.
It was a dumb choice to start with. We pay now.
I find it even more hilarious that there’s this inflated panic about China now, while we spent the last 30y ignoring how the US SV venture capital funded monoliths murdered the european tech sector by just buying it our spending it out of the market under the quiet leadership of several stock owners of these merican companies. Perhaps worry about the fact ARM is owned by Softbank while we’re at it.
That inflated panic started.
When a Chinese company refused to work with the UK gov to keep a plant they own running. Even when the UK offered to cover the costs of doing so. They demanded much higher payments and still refused to guarantee to keep[ the plant running and not destroying the plant by refusing to feed the furnaces. .
While we have critical infrastructure owned by multiple nations.
We have never had a situation where that infer structure risks being destroyed and the companies have refused to work to keep it effective. Or by some (rational) interpretations attempting to destroy it.
Such a situation will naurally cincentrate initial anger on the nation acting.
Yeah, we are at fault for-ever allowing it. But the panic about china, perceived intent, is far from invalid.
So the Chinese are basically Thatcher, got it!