China Rebukes Britain Over the British Steel Nationalisation
China reacted angrily to the nationalisation of British Steel, with its commerce ministry saying it was “strongly dissatisfied” and warning the move had dealt “a severe blow to Chinese companies’ confidence in investing in the UK”. The government took the Scunthorpe steelworks — Britain’s last able to make steel from raw materials — and its Teesside mills into public ownership on Thursday, protecting thousands of jobs, after the Chinese owner Jingye, which bought the business for £70m in 2020, moved to halt operations at a plant losing around £700,000 a day.
Beijing’s rebuke turns an industrial rescue into a diplomatic irritant, and it lands on the incoming government as one of the first tests of a China policy it has yet to define. The government’s case is that steelmaking is a matter of national security — losing Scunthorpe would have left Britain the only G7 nation unable to make virgin steel — and that the security of supply for defence and construction outweighs the chill to Chinese investment. But China’s warning is a reminder of the leverage that comes with that investment, and of the wider dilemma of relying on a strategic rival for critical industry. The unresolved question of compensation for Jingye, to be set by an independent valuer against a plant whose debts may exceed its assets, will keep the dispute alive. Burnham inherits both the steelworks and the row. Watch the compensation settlement, Beijing’s next move, and how the new government frames its approach to Chinese investment.