China will not tolerate “unwanted accusations” about its investments in Britain, a country that cannot risk driving away other Chinese investors as it looks for post-Brexit trade deals, China’s official Xinhua news agency said on Monday.
British Prime Minister Theresa May was concerned about the security implications of a planned Chinese investment in the Hinkley Point nuclear plant and intervened to delay the project, a former colleague and a source said on Saturday.
The plan by France’s EDF to build two reactors with financial backing from a Chinese state-owned company was championed by May’s predecessor David Cameron as a sign of Britain’s openness to foreign investment.
But just hours before a signing ceremony was due to take place on Friday, May’s new government said it would review the project again, raising concern that Britain’s approach to infrastructure deals, energy supply and foreign investment may be changing.
See also: UK’s May Made Decision to Delay Hinkley Nuclear Project
China General Nuclear Power, which would hold a stake of about a third in the project, said on Saturday it respected the decision of the new British government to take the time needed to familiarize itself with the program.
Xinhua, in an English-language commentary, said China understood and respected Britain’s requirement for more time to think about the deal.
“However, what China cannot understand is the ‘suspicious approach’ that comes from nowhere to Chinese investment in making the postponement,” it said.
The project will create thousands of jobs and create much needed energy following the closure of coal-fired power plants, Xinhua added, dismissing fears China would put “back-doors” into the project.
“For a kingdom striving to pull itself out of the Brexit aftermath, openness is the key way out,” it said.
See also: More Chinese Buyers Enquire About UK Property After Brexit Vote
“If history offers any guide, many China-targeted suspicions have been boiled down to diffidence and distortion. China can wait for a rational British government to make responsible decisions, but can not tolerate any unwanted accusation against its sincere and benign willingness for win-win cooperation.”
Such commentaries are not government statements, but offer a reflection of official thinking.
Xinhua said people might think Britain was trying to erect a wall of protectionism.
This “will surely stain its credibility as an open economy and might deter possible investors from China and other parts of the world in the future,” it added.
“China can wait for a rational British government to make responsible decisions, but can not tolerate any unwanted accusation against its sincere and benign willingness for win-win cooperation.”
Britain and EDF first reached a broad commercial agreement on the project in 2013. China got involved two years later when Downing Street laid on a state visit for President Xi Jinping, designed to cement a “Golden Era” of relations between the two countries.