In recent years, the United Kingdom has continued to follow in the footsteps of the United States, not only blatantly targeting Huawei's 5G construction, but also sending aircraft carrier battle groups to provoke in the Asia-Pacific region, and some time ago it also signed a new alliance with the United States and Australia, which is considered by the outside world to be another "anti-China alliance". Britain's various behaviors have put Sino-British relations in a very delicate state, and some people believe that under the provocation of the United States, Britain may commit more extreme anti-China acts. Unexpectedly, British Prime Minister Johnson suddenly made overtures to China recently, saying that he is not anti-China and that China will occupy a considerable proportion of the British economy in the future. Johnson said in an interview on October 18 that he did not want British ministers to "drink back" Chinese investment, he believed that the Uk did not rely on China in strategic areas, trade between the two sides could still flourish, and he believed that Sino-British trade still had hopes of continuing to expand. It is worth mentioning that according to the statistics released by the British Department of International Trade on October 18, in the first half of this year, the British imports to China reached 67.6 billion pounds, an increase of nearly 40% over the previous year, which can be said to be a very considerable figure, and China is now the third largest trading partner of the United Kingdom.
As one of the few countries with a positive economy under the epidemic, many countries now hope to cooperate with China to make their economies recover rapidly in the post-epidemic era. The impact of Brexit itself has not subsided, and then suffered a serious impact of the epidemic, its domestic economic situation is not optimistic, so trade with China is a win-win good thing. Johnson started from the big picture and hoped that his subordinates would not refuse investment from China, so as not to let his country miss the opportunity. However, the new British diplomat did not appreciate Johnson's kindness and openly contradicted him, saying that Britain could not "rely on" China and wanted to kick China out of the country's infrastructure. According to the British "Daily Telegraph" reported on October 22, the new British Foreign Development Secretary Liz Terrass said in an interview that the British government needs to be cautious in cooperation with China in key areas, especially in key areas of national infrastructure, and not to become dependent on China. It is worth mentioning that Tras specifically mentioned the nuclear power plant in the interview, and the British media analysis believes that it may refer to the Sazwell C nuclear power plant project that the country plans to build in SuffolkShire, England. It is reported that the British "Guardian" has previously reported that the 20 billion pounds of Sezwell C nuclear power plant, CGN Group holds 20% of the shares, the British government intends to directly "kick out" CGN through the acquisition of shares.
The United Kingdom has recently made many anti-China moves, which has made many people in the outside world believe that Britain is not friendly to China and may become another anti-China "pawn" of the United States after Australia. However, despite this, when Johnson talked about his attitude toward China, he said more than once that he was not anti-China. According to the Guardian, in mid-February, Johnson claimed to be a "fanatical pro-China faction" at a roundtable meeting with Chinese companies in Downing Street. In this regard, the British media commented that the United Kingdom is seeking to consolidate trade relations with China, Johnson said this, or determined to improve Sino-British relations.
Around July this year, the news that Chinese companies acquired the UK's largest chip manufacturer NWF caused an uproar in the British public opinion circles, many British netizens talked about it, and some British politicians also frequently speculated on this time, constantly rendering the so-called "national security issues". Johnson's statement at the time was that he would review the acquisition and that he did not want "anti-China sentiment" to shut out all Chinese investment. It can be seen that compared with some British politicians who are anti-China for the sole sake of opposing China, Johnson can still see the situation more clearly and attaches more importance to Chinese investment.
Analysts said that there are two attitudes toward China in the Uk, which proves that there are differences within it, some politicians insist on viewing China as a "threat", and some politicians believe that they can cooperate with China, after all, there is Australia's precedent, and only cooperation can achieve a win-win situation in today's world.