Photograph: AP
Beijing has urged Theresa May to make “wise” choices that help write “a new chapter” of UK-China relations when she flies into Hangzhou later this week for the G20 summit amid tensions over the controversial Hinkley Point C nuclear project.
The so-called “golden era” of UK-China ties - sealed under her predecessor, David Cameron - has threatened to unravel since May took power in July.
Shortly after taking office the British Prime Minister angered Beijing by announcing that approval of the £18bn ($23.5bn) nuclear plant, in which China was to hold a one-third stake, would be delayed, apparently as a result of security concerns over Chinese involvement.
The simmering Hinkley row will be hanging over May’s first trip to China for the two-day gathering of the world’s major economies, which begins on Sunday.
In a prominent opinion piece published in the state-run China Daily newspaper on Thursday, ahead of her arrival, China’s ambassador to London urged the Prime Minister to make “wise strategic choices” over Britain’s future relationship with China.
Liu Xiaoming made no direct reference to Hinkley but said “a number of steps need to be taken in order to maintain the momentum in the relationship” between London and Beijing.
The diplomat said those steps included building “stronger political mutual trust” and increased cooperation. “In today’s world, no country can develop by itself behind closed doors,” Liu argued.
Noting that the G20 would see May’s first “face-to-face communication with Chinese leaders”, Beijing’s ambassador added: “I hope both sides will seize this opportunity to forge stronger trust and closer friendship”.
Whether the Prime Minister’s first encounter with Chinese President Xi Jinping will prove so friendly remains to be seen.
Nick Timothy, May’s influential joint chief of staff, lambasted the “golden” relationship with China last year in an article for Conservative Home website.
Timothy argued that Beijing had tried to buy British silence on its human rights abuses “with their gold”. “And [David Cameron’s] government has been only too happy to oblige.”
Timothy also questioned the wisdom of allowing Chinese involvement in sensitive sectors such as nuclear power, arguing there was no justification for giving “a hostile state easy access to the country’s critical national infrastructure”.
Reports emerged earlier this week that May was considering a proposal to detach the development of the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station from an agreement allowing China to build a nuclear reactor in Bradwell, Essex.
That decision would be likely to infuriate Beijing which saw the Bradwell plant as a means of showcasing its nuclear technology to the rest of the world.
“[The] Chinese would never agree to it,” Paul Dorfman, a former government adviser on nuclear power, told the Times, which reported the proposal on Monday.
Dorfman suggested Downing Street’s attempt to separate the projects could in fact be “a strategy to torpedo the whole thing”.
