We won’t ‘pitchfork away’ investment from China, says PM
BRITAIN will not ‘pitchfork away’ investment from China, the Prime Minister vowed yesterday.
Boris Johnson made the pledge despite concerns over Beijing’s human rights abuses and espionage.
He insisted he was not a ‘Sinophobe’ and said the country would continue to play a ‘gigantic part’ in the UK economy.
But he admitted it would be ‘naive’ to allow the communist superpower to gain control of vital infrastructure such as 5G phone networks or nuclear power.
His comments in an interview on Monday came as more than 100 MPs urged Parliament’s pension fund to ditch investments worth millions of pounds in firms linked to the Chinese state, or in firms accused of complicity in its censorship of the internet and suppression of minorities such as the Uyghur Muslims.
The letter – whose signatories include former ministers Sir Iain Duncan Smith and Liam Fox – warned that Chinese tech giants Alibaba and Tencent ‘regularly collaborate with the Chinese state in maintaining internet censorship through the “Great Firewall” and have provided the government with surveillance patents for software which has been put to use against the Uyghurs’.
Britain has already angered China by banning Huawei from work on 5G infrastructure in the UK and by joining a new defence pact with Australia and the US, as well as by offering refuge to Hong Kongers fleeing a crackdown on democracy.
But Mr Johnson told Bloomberg: ‘I am no Sinophobe, very far from it. China is a great country, a great civilisation.’
He went on: ‘I’m not going to tell you the UK Government is going to pitchfork away every overture from China.’
He would not be drawn on whether or not China’s president will attend the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow.
Xi Jinping has not left China for almost two years but there are hopes he may yet make a surprise appearance.
In a boost to the summit, China hailed Cop26 as ‘deeply significant’ and pledged to send a delegation, which will include
special climate envoy Xie Zhenhua. The envoy said his country wanted to work with the international community and would do its best to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.
Amid a flurry of environmental plans, the Prime Minister yesterday urged business leaders to invest more in green technology. He told bosses gathered in London for the first Global Investment Summit: ‘I can deploy billions – with the approval of the Chancellor, obviously – but you in this room, you can deploy trillions.’
Mr Johnson appeared on stage with billionaire Bill Gates to pledge a joint £400million investment in promising new carbon-cutting technologies.