Chinese investment in UK welcome despite tensions, overtures won’t be ‘pitchforked away’, Johnson says
- Decisions to bar Chinese investment in Britain and condemnation of China’s human-rights record have soured relations with Beijing over the last few years
- UK imports from China amounted to £67.6 billion (US$93 billion) in the year until June, making China the UK’s third largest trading partner
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he is not about to “pitchfork away” offers of Chinese investment despite the concerns of some of his own lawmakers.
Decisions to bar Chinese companies from Britain’s fifth-generation communication networks and nuclear power, and condemnation of China’s human-rights record have soured relations with Beijing over the last few years, but Johnson maintains he is pro-China.
“I am no Sinophobe – very far from it,” Johnson said in an interview with Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait on Monday.
“I’m not going to tell you that the UK government is going to pitchfork away every overture from China.”
China is a gigantic part of our economic life and will be for a long time – for our lifetimes
Johnson was speaking ahead of an investment conference in London on Tuesday designed to boost investment into the United Kingdom and just a fortnight before he hosts the COP26 climate summit in Scotland.
UK imports from China amounted to £67.6 billion (US$93 billion) in the year until June, according to UK statistics, a rise of nearly 40 per cent from the previous year. That makes China the UK’s third largest trading partner.