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Subject: ”。Cameron chases moving targets to pin down value of Xi’s legacy projects Sajid Javid, the business secretary, yesterday announced that President Xi…
Excerpt: English text from the archived bilingual edition · Chinese edition
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”。Cameron chases moving targets to pin down value of Xi’s legacy projects Sajid Javid, the business secretary, yesterday announced that President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Britain would be crowned by ￡25bn of Sino-British trade deals. Downing Street then increased the estimate to “up to ￡30bn”
By the time he arrived at Mansion House on Wednesday night David Cameron was wielding an even more heady figure of ￡40bn — which found its way into countless news headlines
As Mr Xi headed for Chequers for dinner with Mr Cameron and prepared to visit Manchester on the final day of his four-day state visit, Number 10 struggled to explain the curious bout of deal inflation
“I don’t really know where that ￡40bn figure has come from,” said one government aide. Two senior Whitehall figures said the number was only obtained by adding ￡12bn of future expenditure on Hinkley Point nuclear power station by EDF, the French energy company. Downing St denied that claim. “
Meanwhile analysis by the Financial Times suggests that even the less ambitious estimates may have involved some generous interpretation. Downing St refused to explain how it had made its calculations, suggesting that some deals were yet to be announced. A press officer said there would not be a “full breakdown of figures and agreements” until the Chinese delegation had left
Officials have attributed a value of ￡1.7bn to a deal to rebuild Royal Albert Docks in east London: in reality a Chinese investor has merely bought a minority equity stake in the project from the Chinese developer which controls the site
An agreement for BP to sell liquefied natural gas to China Huadian Corporation has a headline value of ￡6.5bn: but it stretches over 20 years
Also included is a ￡2.6bn agreement — over 10 years — between two Chinese groups and Carnival, the world’s biggest cruise company, which has a joint listing in London but is headquartered in Miami
Critics say that the government is playing up the value of its deals with China in a bid to prove that its courtship of Beijing is reaping rewards
“For political reasons, the government needs to show it is maximising Chinese investment,” said Tony Travers, director of the London School of Economics. “
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