Amongst protests from anti-nuclear campaigners who called the project “dangerous”, Chinese President Xi Jinping and David Cameron signed multi-billion pound business deals, including for a project to build a nuclear power station in Britain, on day two of the Chinese president’s first state visit to the country.
In a joint statement, Jinping confirmed the planned Hinkley Point C nuclear plant in south-west England, as the French energy firm EDF and China General Nuclear Power Corporation signed an investment agreement to build the new plant in Somerset. China will take a stake of one third, $28bn of the project which is due to start by 2025, and is the first European nuclear plant to be built since Japan’s Fukushima disaster in 2011. The deal happens to be the main attraction of Jinping's four-day visit to the UK.
In a controlled press conference at Downing Street, Cameron revealed the results of the bilateral meeting, including a new “agreement on cyber-enabled commercial espionage”. Cameron's spokeswoman said both the sides had agreed not “to conduct or support the cyber-enabled theft of intellectual property, trade secrets or confidential business information.” Several questions were raised on Cameron compromising the country's security as well as its moral and international standing, fuelled by the crisis in the UK steel industry blamed on Chinese “dumping”. However, the unfazed leaders defended their deepening ties. “I totally reject the idea you either have a conversation about human rights and steel or you have a strong relationship with China. The stronger the relationship between our countries, the more we will be able to have a serious dialogue. We may not always agree, but we can discuss issues openly and constructively,” Cameron said.
Among five agreements signed in Downing Street were pacts on infrastructure investment, action against smuggling and joint research on new technology including satellite applications and new energy.
