You won’t have been able to miss the fact that the Chinese leader Xi Jinping is in town – and being feted wherever he goes by a Government desperate for him to sign on the dotted line for a trade deal or two.
That it is more than a decade since the last Chinese leader stopped by speaks volumes for the amount of behind-the- scenes wooing that has been going on. Ministers and their officials been batting their eyes at an ocean of Chinese capital – catnip to an investment-needy nation.
So it is rather timely that the CBI has chosen Wednesday to make the case for Britain staying in the European Union – albeit an EU that has been subjected to a reform process.
The employers’ organisation has produced a report featuring contributions from 29 members, stressing the numerous benefits that business derives from Britain’s membership. Chief among these are ease of access to a “market of 500 million consumers” and the international investment that pours in as a result – including the Chinese investment that our Government desperately wants to attract more of.
Eurosceptics fondly believe that a UK free from the EU’s supposed “yoke” will be able to develop favourable trading links with the world’s most dynamic economies, of which China is still one despite its recent troubles. They ignore the point that the UK’s chief attraction to those economies is its membership of the EU.
If they get their wish and there is a Brexit, there may also be a Chi-exit – and that may be just the start of it. The CBI knows this but the Government still refuses to see it.
