Britain ‘Will Suffer’ If It Blocks Chinese Businesses, Warns China Lobbyist Group

xi jingping
ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP via Getty Images
Kurt Zindulka

Britain “will suffer” if it continues to stand up against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and lose billions in Chinese investment, warned a China lobbying group in the United Kingdom.

Wenjian Fang, the chairman of the China Chamber of Commerce in the United Kingdom — which represents hundreds of Chinese businesses including Huawei, ZTE, and Air China — threatened that China will throw its economic muscle around should Britain continue to ban Chinese companies.

“If you continue to bar Chinese companies, the UK itself will suffer from lack of support or co-operation from China. Chinese investor confidence will be heavily impacted … when the UK needs investment so much at this time,” said Mr Fang, according to the Sunday Times.

China has increasingly taken a hardline stance following the mainstream media’s declaration that former vice-president Joe Biden won last month’s presidential election in the United States.

The CCP has targeted both the United Kingdom and Australia, which have started standing up to the communist regime during President Trump’s term in office, with the British government announcing that it would ban Chinese tech giant Huawei from its 5G networks by 2031 after pressure from the White House in July.

There is also a national security and investment bill being considered by Parliament that could be used to block Chinese investment from critical infrastructure in Britain.

Mr Fang, who also serves as the head of the state-owned Bank of China in the UK, went on to go after Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s ‘Build Back Better’ green agenda, warning that China could pull its funding from the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant.

“They are prepared to make further big, substantial investment in the UK, but they are now waiting to see what decision the UK government is going to make,” he said, adding: “Why do you close the door and send them away? OK, go and find another partner. The plan to reduce emissions will be heavily impacted.”

He went on to warn that British companies with large exports to China, such as Jaguar Land Rover and Burberry, could face ramifications as well, saying: “If the UK continues to be hostile to China, to Chinese companies and goods, what will the public reaction in China be? The public will say, ‘OK, if you don’t buy from us, why should we buy from you?’ We have seen such things happen before.”

Hong Kong Watch founder Benedict Rogers described the threats from Mr Fang as “more bullying by the Chinese Communist Party regime.”

“We need global, co-ordinated, targeted and robust sanctions against the CCP and we need them now,” Rogers said.

The chairman of the powerful Foreign Affairs Committee in the House of Commons, Tom Tugendhat MP, said: “Chinese businesses claim to be independent but they threaten like the Central Committee of the CCP. We’ve seen the same tactics used in Australia. They have stood up to this threat to their sovereignty. We must too.”

China has spent the last two decades dumping millions of pounds sterling into investment projects in Britain, as well as buying stakes in Heathrow and Thames Water.

The communist party has also sought to gain influence within British universities through state-backed Confucious Institute propaganda departments on campuses across the country.

In May, Huawei, which has been characterised as “effectively state-owned“, pumped £5 million into Imperial College in London, the university whose doomsday predictions for the Chinese coronavirus sparked lockdowns throughout the world.

The money was ostensibly meant to be directed towards research projects and the construction of new facilities and an internal 5G network for the campus in London, however, some claimed that the real aim was to gain influence in British academia.

Former Conservative Party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said of the deal: “This is a perfect example of how the Chinese strategy is to use their money to insert their influence in the world’s intellectual thought process. How ironic it is Imperial that is dealing with the fallout of Covid-19. This is a deeply worrying and dangerous relationship.”

Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here: @KurtZindulka

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.