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WORLD NEWSWednesday 21 October

China’s President Xi Jinping, right, and his wife Peng Liyuan,left, accompany Britain’s Queen Eliza- UK steel maker to lay off 1,200
beth and Prince Philip as they arrive for a state banquet at Buckingham Palace in London, on the amid cheaper Chinese imports
first full day of their state visit, Tuesday Oct. 20, 2015.
DANICA KIRKA
(Toby Melville/Pool Photo via AP) Associated Press
LONDON (AP) — Manufacturer Tata Steel announced
UK rolls out red carpet for China’s Xi 1,200 job cuts in the U.K. on Tuesday, underscoring
on contentious state visit the damage caused by cheap Chinese imports and
throwing a shroud over a state visit by Chinese Presi-
JILL LAWLESS Beijing so aggressively. eron is under pressure to dent Xi Jinping designed to usher in a “golden era” of
Associated Press “If you act like a panting confront Xi about the steel relations between the countries.
LONDON (AP) — Chi- puppy, the object of your industry and human rights, Tata blamed the layoffs in northern England and Scot-
na’s leader quoted Chi- attention is going to think but China’s leader was land on a “flood of cheap imports, particularly from
nese proverbs and William they have got you on a welcomed to London with China,” along with high electricity costs and the strong
Shakespeare while Britain’s leash,” James McGregor, lavish tradition and military pound.
prime minister hailed a a China expert at consult- pomp — a genre at which Though the cuts had been rumored for days, the tim-
“golden age” between the ing firm APCO, told the both Britain and China ex- ing of the announcement — on the first full day of Xi’s
two nations as a state visit BBC. cel. visit — seemed designed to win maximum attention.
festooned with regal pomp Some British politicians, Xi was greeted with a 41- “The U.K. steel industry is struggling for survival in the
and pageantry was shad- businesspeople and union gun artillery salute before face of extremely challenging market conditions,” Karl
owed by concerns about members are alarmed by being driven to Bucking- Koehler, chief executive of Tata’s European opera-
national security, human growing Chinese invest- ham Palace, where he and tions, said in a statement. “This industry has a crucial
rights and economic rivalry. ment in key sectors of the his wife Peng Liyuan will role to play in rebalancing the U.K. economy, but we
President Xi Jinping’s trip, British economy, including stay, in a gilded carriage need a fairer system to encourage growth.”
years in the making, aimed nuclear power, and by Chi- drawn by white horses. The British government is under pressure to raise the is-
to cement deals giving Brit- nese competition in areas Thousands lined the route sue of China selling steel at a loss on world markets. Ta-
ain a vast new pool of in- such as steel production. to see Xi go by. Demonstra- ta’s decision comes only weeks after Sahaviriya Steel
vestment and China great- Hundreds of U.K. steel lay- tors from human rights and Industries announced the closure of its plant in Red-
er access to European mar- offs were announced Tues- pro-Tibet groups jostled car, costing 2,200 jobs. Another firm, Caparo Industries,
kets. day, the first full day of with a much larger group went into partial administration on Monday, threaten-
But as Xi was welcomed Xi’s four-day visit, in a crisis of Xi well-wishers whose ing hundreds more jobs.
Tuesday as an honored that manufacturers blame chants of “China! China!” China’s steel exports are “certainly one of the things
guest at Buckingham Pal- on China selling steel at a drowned out their rivals’ we’ll be talking about,” Foreign Secretary Philip Ham-
ace and Parliament, crit- loss on world markets to se- shouts of “Shame!” and mond told the BBC on Tuesday, while stressing that
ics warned that Britain was cure its own market share. “Free Tibet!”q increased Chinese investment will stimulate the British
taking a risk by courting Prime Minister David Cam- economy and create jobs.
The oversupply of steel on the world market has led to
lower prices, and the European Union is trying to en-
sure that Chinese steel is fairly priced by imposing anti-
dumping duties, Hammond said.
But Koehler called on the European Commission, the
EU’s governing body, to do “much, much more to
deal with unfairly traded imports.”
“Inaction threatens the future of the entire European
steel industry,” he said.
China will not be surprised by a government raising
concerns about a national industry, said Damian To-
bin, a lecturer in Chinese Business and Management
at SOAS University of London. But the timing of the an-
nouncement will pressure Britain to add the steel issue
to discussions on trade, nuclear power and high speed
rail.
“China is willing to talk about these things,” Tobin said.
“(The question) is whether the U.K government is pre-
pared to bring up these issues when they would rather
talk about business. Being pragmatic suits the Chinese
side very well.”q