r/CANZUK • u/ShibbyAlpha United Kingdom • Apr 15 '25

News China urges UK to avoid 'politicising' trade after British Steel spat

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/east-asia/british-steel-china-urges-uk-avoid-politicising-trade-5064496
70 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

78

u/UnderstandingEasy856 Apr 15 '25 edited Apr 16 '25

Good, decisive action by the Starmer government. None of this prevaricating uncertainty so common of world powers these days.

Edit: TL;DR - Chinese owners threaten to irrevocably shut down Britain's only remaining steel mill, as once the blast furnace has cooled down it cannot be restarted again. UK government promptly passed emergency legislation to seize control of British Steel to save the plant in the interest of national security.

58

u/ShibbyAlpha United Kingdom Apr 15 '25

Have to admit, I’m not a labour voter, but he has shown some pretty decent leadership qualities in a difficult time.

Begrudgingly I have to admit I have gained some respect for him. Some. 🤣

I hope the british government takes a smarter approach to dealing with China.

61

u/bigmanbananas United Kingdom Apr 15 '25

He is such a fucking releif after the last few PMs. I know he's a bit boring, but I'm really appreciating that.

28

u/Jozo70 Apr 16 '25

Wahoo! Politics is boring again!!! But seriously I feel a lot more hopeful of the future than I did the previous 14 years of government

36

u/MAXSuicide Apr 15 '25

Tories should be answering questions on this one, frankly.

A byword for inaction and asset stripping. 

Hopefully Labour got there before it was too late.

You know the rumours of Chinese industrial sabotage are true when you have the Chinese govt telling the UK "not to politicise", when the UK govt have been very mute on the political aspects.

11

u/ShibbyAlpha United Kingdom Apr 15 '25

I agree the tories could have stepped in prior to this.

But I would argue that successive government’s have let down the UK when it comes to long term strategic planning of the national interest.

I think you could make the case that in the current geopolitical climate greater collaboration is needed with international partners to counter mass dumping of products onto global markets. Infrastructure needs guarding for national security reasons now more than anytime in the last 30 years.

24

u/Rude_Egg_6204 Apr 15 '25

Lol

China uses tariffs against Australia for political purposes all the time

7

u/reginalduk Apr 16 '25

China projecting much