Chinese envoy calls for Britain to show ‘sincerity’ on investment

Zheng Zeguang says companies are closely watching policy changes and it’s important to improve the environment for investors
It comes after UK international trade secretary said Chinese firms were welcome to invest in non-strategic parts of the economy

China-UK relations

Laura Zhou

Published: 6:00pm, 20 Oct 2021

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Britain needs to offer more than lip service and improve the investment environment for Chinese companies, according to Beijing’s ambassador to London.

Zheng Zeguang – who was barred from Britain’s parliament last month amid tensions over Hong Kong and Xinjiang – made the remark days after the UK government said Chinese firms were welcome to invest in non-strategic parts of the economy. Chinese companies have been blocked from the UK’s 5G network and its nuclear power industry.

“Chinese investors are closely watching the changes in policies in the UK,” Zheng told reporters via video link on Tuesday, according to an embassy statement.

“If you tell investors that they are welcome to come and invest, they would show some interest – but only when you demonstrate sincerity with your actions would they make an investment decision,” he said. “Therefore, it is important that the UK continues to improve the investment environment for Chinese investors.”

Britain is courting green investment as it seeks to cut carbon emissions. Photo: TNS

Asked about green investment, Zheng said Chinese and British companies could work together in areas ranging from green technology and finance to civilian nuclear energy projects and electric vehicles. He said Chinese companies were already involved in car battery and wind power projects with UK firms.

“We hope that the British side will work closely with the Chinese side in the same direction to create a favourable environment for business cooperation between the two countries and to promote more fruitful business cooperation,” he added.

Britain is courting green investment as it seeks to cut carbon emissions, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson announcing nearly £10 billion (US$13.7 billion) of private investment in green projects at a summit in London on Tuesday.

It comes as the UK is set to host world leaders at the end of this month for the UN climate summit, or COP26, in Glasgow. Beijing has yet to announce whether President Xi Jinping will attend the meeting.

Speaking ahead of the investment summit, Britain’s international trade secretary, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, told the Financial Times that Chinese investment was welcome in non-strategic areas, despite concerns over human rights abuses.

In a later interview with Bloomberg, the British prime minister would not say where the line would be drawn on strategic investment. “China is a gigantic part of our economic lifetime and will be for a long time – for our lifetimes,” Johnson said. “But that does not mean that we should be naive in the way that we look at our critical national infrastructure.”

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Chinese manufacturing thrown into disarray as country's electricity crisis rolls on

On Tuesday, ambassador Zheng also said that Britain’s energy crisis had “nothing to do with China” and it should “look to itself for solutions”.

Fourteen UK energy firms have collapsed since the start of August as they were unable to cope with record high gas prices, leaving more than 1.7 million customers without suppliers, and it has been suggested that China’s shift away from coal to more natural gas imports added to the shortage.

Zheng said the surge in energy prices had also led to “temporary power shortages” in China, but denied the country was ramping up coal consumption to deal with its crisis. “We are strongly encouraging local governments to increase renewable energy supply,” he said. “The rise of coal production in China is not a long-term phenomenon; rather, it will be falling in the long term.”

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Envoy urges Britain to show ‘sincerity’ on investment