Beijing asks Whitehall for money to complete British Steel sale

Chinese company eyes Thames Water acquisition; leading PRC foreign policy figure detained for questioning

Observing China is the essential newsletter to understand the UK-PRC relationship, explained in the context of global developments.

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A number of countries around the world continue to grapple with the rise of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), with the country at the frontline of this issue being the United States (US). Beijing calls this competition for global dominance a ‘struggle’, and in many ways, the US acts in line with this thinking. Some of the key themes in this competition include a tug-of-war over semiconductor export controls and skirmishes in the South China Sea. Increasingly, the Panama Canal, on the other side of the planet, is a potential flashpoint for tension as another key trade route.

But for the United Kingdom (UK), most of its interactions with the PRC – whether positive or negative – take place on its home turf. This year, the interactions have focused largely on investment and trade. The UK-PRC news over the past week is consistent with that; just when we thought we could breathe a sigh of relief over the British Steel saga, Jingye, the company’s Chinese owners, are now requesting large sums of money from His Majesty’s (HM) Government to complete the sale. And it also looks like a Chinese company is eyeing up Thames Water, another indebted British company. These are legitimate companies and legitimate purchases, but concerns were raised over the negotiating behaviour deployed for British Steel.

Welcome back to Observing China.