BEIJING: Beijing warned Britain on Monday (Apr 14) towards “politicising” an unfolding spat over the way forward for Chinese language-owned British Metal after laws was authorised to forestall the shutdown of the final British manufacturing facility that may make metal from scratch.
The UK authorities rushed pressing laws via parliament on Saturday to cease the blast furnaces at British Metal’s plant within the northern English city of Scunthorpe from being turned off.
The transfer got here after homeowners Jingye mentioned it was not financially viable to maintain them burning.
Britain’s Enterprise Secretary Jonathan Reynolds later mentioned London had been “naive” to let the Chinese language agency take over a part of the delicate metal trade.
A spokesman for China’s international ministry urged the British authorities on Monday to “keep away from politicising commerce cooperation or linking it to safety points, in order to not influence the boldness of Chinese language enterprises in going to the UK”.
“Relating to the operational difficulties presently confronted by British Metal, the 2 sides ought to negotiate an answer on the idea of mutual profit,” Lin Jian advised a daily information briefing in Beijing.
Beijing hopes London will “deal with Chinese language companies which have invested and function within the UK pretty and justly, (and) shield their official and lawful rights and pursuits”.
Jingye, one of many world’s greatest metal companies, is “a Chinese language non-public enterprise that has undertaken cooperation with the British aspect primarily based on market rules”, Lin mentioned.
The corporate purchased British Metal in 2020 and says it has invested greater than £1.2 billion (US$1.6 billion) to keep up operations however was dropping round £700,000 a day.
