LONDON
— China's state visit to Britain moved from warm toasts and ceremony
to cold, hard cash Wednesday, with business deals including a major
Chinese investment in the U.K.'s first nuclear power station since the
1980s.
President
Xi Jinping is expected to sign an agreement that will lead to his
country financing 30 percent of the cost of the Hinckley Point plant in
southwest England. It is set to be completed by 2025 and will be built
by Electricite de France and a group led by China's state-owned nuclear
company. EDF sought investors after it was unable to cover the cost of
the deal alone.
The
British government has agreed to underwrite 2 billion pounds ($3.1
billion) in Chinese financing to secure the deal and pave the way for
majority Chinese ownership of a second nuclear plant planned for
England's southeast.
The
nuclear agreement has faced criticism from those who suggest
Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron has been wooing the Chinese
for trade deals while ignoring the country's human rights record.
Others
worry about letting an undemocratic emerging superpower with powerful
espionage capabilities access to Britain's critical infrastructure.
"It
won't be the physical security that matters, but the cybersecurity,"
said Alan Woodward, visiting professor of computing at the University of
Surrey. "We don't want a foreign power being able to quite literally
turn off the lights from some remote location."
Xi
has been welcomed with lavish ceremony on his visit, which began
Tuesday with a day of pomp that culminated in a banquet at Buckingham
Palace during which Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, toasted the Chinese
leader.
Xi also addressed both houses of Parliament on Tuesday, and held talks with Cameron at 10 Downing St. on Wednesday.
Accompanied
by Kate and her husband Prince William, Xi viewed innovative examples
of U.K.-Chinese collaboration, including low-emission versions of a
London black cab, a red London bus and James Bond's favored Aston Martin
car — all due to be developed through deals between the two countries.
He also met some members of the team behind hit British TV exports
"Sherlock" and "Poldark," and action star Jackie Chan, at an event
celebrating Britain's creative industries.
Not
everyone in Britain has welcomed the government's charm offensive. Xi's
visit has drawn protests from human rights and pro-Tibet groups —
though they have been outnumbered by Chinese flag-waving pro-Xi crowds.
Steve Hilton, a former close adviser to Cameron, called the visit "one of the worst national humiliations we've seen."
"I
think that we have to be much tougher," he told the BBC. "I think that
we should consider sanctions on China, not rolling out the red carpet."
Opposition
politicians and trade unionists also have urged Cameron to stand up to
Xi over what they see as unfair Chinese commercial competition.
U.K.-based
steelmakers have announced several thousand layoffs in recent weeks in a
crisis that manufacturers blame on China selling steel at a loss on
world markets to secure its own market share.
Challenged
in the House of Commons to do more to support British steel,Cameron
said the industry was in "a very difficult situation" because of
oversupply and a collapse in world steel prices. He said Britain would
take action on several fronts, including "unfair competition and
dumping."
Chinese
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters in Beijing
that "some disagreements or frictions" between economic partners were
inevitable.
"The
most important part is that both countries agree to properly handle
these disagreements and frictions through discussion on the basis of
equality and mutual benefit," she said.
The
nuclear investment is the highest-profile of around 30 billion pounds
($46 billion) in business deals that Britain hopes will be signed during
Xi's four-day stay.
Others
include a 325 million-pound ($502 million) package of partnerships in
the creative and technology, including a 50 million-pound ($77 million)
deal between Aston Martin and China Equity to develop its zero-emission
RapidE sports car.
Britain also plans to slash the price of visas for Chinese tourists in hopes of attracting more visitors.
Source: NY Times
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