Should the Government really be selling off Britain to China, a country that spies on us?

Iain Martin

Iain Martin is a political commentator, and a former editor of The Scotsman and former deputy editor of The Sunday Telegraph. He is the author of Making It Happen: Fred Goodwin, RBS and the men who blew up the British economy, published by Simon & Schuster.. As well as this blog, he writes a column for The Sunday Telegraph. You can read more about Iain by visiting his website

Should the Government really be selling off Britain to China,

a country that spies on us?

By Iain Martin Politics October 21st, 2013

George Osborne with Ma Kai from China’s National Energy Administration

It is said that George Osborne values personal relationships much more than ideology or ethics when it comes to politics. He loves the game of networking and schmoozing other powerful figures, whether it is Obama's team or the senior players in the tech giant Google. The Chancellor is also generally much better at ensuring that "his" people are promoted in government and he takes criticism seriously, meaning he reads it and remembers who has criticised him and who has not.

Perhaps Osborne's personality helps explain his wild enthusiasm for all things Chinese. The Chinese ruling class also values the notion of face, and prioritises the importance of relationships. From early on in the Cameroon era, Osborne and David Cameron made big personal investments in wooing China. They went on trips and were very nice to the Chinese. Cameron was a little more sceptical, as he showed by meeting the Dalai Lama (much to his credit). That decision caused the Tory leader to be sent into external exile by the Chinese government. He will be welcome back in the next six months, it is said, but first George Osborne had to go and clear the way by being extra-special nice.

Of course, the primary motive here is the need for improved trade links with the East's economic powerhouse. I don't doubt the need for it or the purity of the motives of those involved.

But it is striking that there has been so little criticism of Osborne's trip to China last week. Boris was there too, but Mayors of megacities are expected to bang the drum to drive investment and trade. Chancellors traditionally have not seen it as their role to be travelling salesmen. They usually prioritise other stuff. It is hard to imagine Nigel Lawson as Chancellor spending a week in a foreign country, getting involved in energy deals and giving round-the-clock interviews on how the British should pull their socks up. Osborne seems to have been completely carried away in the excitement and forgotten that China is not a free society. In awestruck tones he said that China has a can-do culture. Yes, I suppose it does. The Chinese government certainly has a can-do culture. The government can do what it likes.

Am I alone in being deeply uneasy about some of what was announced last week? Should the British government really be gleefully selling off the UK – its infrastructure, land, houses and so on – to China? Is this wise?

Now the Chinese will even be allowed to own stakes in nuclear power installations in Britain. This is a country that spies on the UK, a lot.

As Jonathan Fenby noted the other day, it is one thing to have everything up for sale when it is a two-way street in terms of trade, with agreed rules and transparency. It is quite another for one country – the UK – to enthusiastically invite in another party – China – and say "take your pick" when China would never allow other countries the same commercial leeway on its home turf.

Five years on from the financial crisis, Osborne is also desperate for the the Chinese banks to do much more in the City of London. They were spectacularly bailed out by the Chinese government in 1999-2000 when they looked like falling over as a result of lax lending that made Fred Goodwin look like Mother Teresa. As the FT pointed outlast week, incredibly the British government has promised these Chinese banks a special light-touch regulatory regime, with dispensations on the capital front. What could possibly go wrong?

A veteran observer of politics, who has seen governments come and go, put it well this weekend when we were discussing Osborne's trip. "This China thing will come back and bite them on the bum," he said. I suspect he's right.