'Arrogant' MPs accused of 'slandering' China in British Steel row (2025)

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China today hit out at 'arrogant' and 'ignorant' British politicians over their 'slandering' of Beijing in the row over British Steel.

MPs this weekend passed emergency laws allowing the Government to seize control of British Steel's plant in Scunthorpe from its Chinese owners.

The dispute between ministers and Jingye over the proposed closure of Scunthorpe's blast furnaces brought fresh scrutiny over China's role in critical UK infrastructure.

It saw calls for the Government to block China from being allowed to further invest in 'strategic' sectors in Britain.

There were also accusations that the Chinese government deliberately sabotaged British Steel to damage the UK, although these were dismissed by Downing Street.

In a deepening war of words between Beijing and London, the Chinese embassy in the UK has now offered a furious retort.

As reported by the state-owned Global Times, an embassy spokesperson insisted that Jingye is a 'private Chinese enterprise'.

The firm 'makes business investments in the UK on the basis of market principles and conducts operation on its own', they added.

The spokesperson claimed that Chinese companies hadcontributed more than £115billion to the UK economy and created nearly 60,000 jobs.

They also pointed to US President Donald Trump's tariffs assault on other nations, including China and the UK.

'Those British politicians just keep slandering the Chinese government and Chinese enterprises instead of criticising the US,' the spokesperson continued.

'What on earth are they up to? Any words or deeds that politicise or maliciously hype up business issues will undermine the confidence of Chinese business investors in the UK and damage China-UK economic and trade cooperation.

'We urge the British Government to follow the principles of fairness, impartiality and non-discrimination and to make sure that the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies in the UK are protected.'

They added: 'The anti-China rhetoric of some individual British politicians is extremely absurd, reflecting their arrogance, ignorance and twisted mindset.'

The spokesperson also claimed Jingye had put 'substantial funding' into British Steel to keep it afloat and said UK workers might already have lost their jobs without that cash.

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds yesterday said he would 'look at a Chinese firm in a different way' when it comes to future involvement in the UK steel sector.

'In this case, our difference of opinion on the future was with a specific company,' he added.

'I know there's a lot of interest in the wider UK-China relationship, understandably so but this was about this company. I think we've got to recognise that steel is a sensitive sector.'

Thisappeared to be a softening of Mr Reynolds' stance from the weekend, when he told broadcasters he would not 'personally bring a Chinese company into our steel sector' again.

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