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China To UK: 'Golden' Ties At Crucial Juncture Over Nuclear Delay (reuters.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the money-at-stake dept.

mdsolar quotes a report from Reuters: China has cautioned Britain against closing the door to Chinese money and said relations were at a crucial juncture after Prime Minister Theresa May delayed signing off on a $24 billion nuclear power project. In China's sternest warning to date over May's surprise decision to review the building of Britain's first nuclear plant in decades, Beijing's ambassador to London said that Britain could face power shortages unless May approved the Franco-Chinese deal. "The China-UK relationship is at a crucial historical juncture. Mutual trust should be treasured even more," Liu Xiaoming wrote in the Financial Times. "I hope the UK will keep its door open to China and that the British government will continue to support Hinkley Point -- and come to a decision as soon as possible so that the project can proceed smoothly." The comments signal deep frustration in Beijing at May's move to delay, her most striking corporate intervention since winning power in the political turmoil which followed Britain's June 23 referendum to leave the European Union.

9 of 170 comments (clear)

  1. It was a terrible deal for Britain anyway by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Given that the wholesale price being guaranteed by the government for each kWh was massively higher than even the price consumers are expected to be paying when it was due to open I see no reason to go ahead with it. Energy prices should be dropping not climbing as we have better renewables being developed.

    1. Re:It was a terrible deal for Britain anyway by Chrisq · · Score: 4, Informative

      Given that the wholesale price being guaranteed by the government for each kWh was massively higher than even the price consumers are expected to be paying when it was due to open I see no reason to go ahead with it. Energy prices should be dropping not climbing as we have better renewables being developed.

      Yes but quite a few politicians would have got backhanders, erm I mean consultation fees

    2. Re:It was a terrible deal for Britain anyway by Pax681 · · Score: 5, Informative

      The UK is mostly in a poor region for solar so that is not really an option, and wind performance isn't exactly spectacular. They would have to install massive amounts of offshore wind overcapacity to significantly reduce carbon production, which would be even more expensive. Their options are limited.

      oh.. so please.. tell my why it is that 57.7 per cent of Scotland's electricity came from renewables in 2015? Do you think it' because Scotland does rather well with shitloads of offshore and wind generation? .. I know it is .. try researching before opening your mouth and letting your belly rumble. we currently use the following...
      Hydro-electric power
      Wind power
      Wave power
      Tidal power
      Biofuels
      Biodiesel
      Biogas, anaerobic digestion and landfill gas
      Solid biomass
      Micro systems
      Solar energy
      Geothermal energy
      And are world leaders on research too! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... and behold the plethora of renewable stuff that gives us more than half our energy needs in Scotland... so tell me... how does it feel to be someone who could not be more wrong if your name was W . Wrongy Wrongenstien???

    3. Re:It was a terrible deal for Britain anyway by Maury+Markowitz · · Score: 4, Informative

      > you forget all the problems with wind

      No, I don't. Because most of them are made up by people who don't work in the energy industry, work for other sources (the nuclear and coal industries publish a constant stream of anti-renewables materials) or just don't want turbines in their backyard and will pick up any any old crap they find on the 'net as "proof", like YouTube videos.

      Let me make this very simple: the people who actually buy, sell and finance these things *don't care about these made up problems* that anti-wind people dream up. They are as cogent as complaining about the color of the blades. Want proof?

      https://www.iea.org/Textbase/npsum/WEO2015SUM.pdf

    4. Re:It was a terrible deal for Britain anyway by Pax681 · · Score: 4, Informative

      power outages? only in storms or some such.. sorry bud but apart from the 1970's when strikes hit and there was a 3 day week... no power outages here apart from after storms etc. to say it's a shortage of generating power is is just plain bullshit and you made it up. .. Fairlytale? 57.7% of power generated for Scotland was renewable and we even exported some 24%..
      As for paying several times the price? you are a fucking idiot pal, i pay quite cheap rates with my electricity supplier and it's mostly renewable ( www.ovoenergy.com ) not because i am all green and that but because IT'S FUCKING CHEAPER AND I WANT TO SAVE MONEY!
      same reason i used energy saving light bulbs.. it's cheaper on my pocket You sir are full of shit!

    5. Re:It was a terrible deal for Britain anyway by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Funny

      same reason i used energy saving light bulbs.. it's cheaper on my pocket You sir are full of shit!

      Scots are the only reason I might use a site like slashdot which used video instead of text. I'm imagining your comment spoken emphatically and with the appropriate accent... and want to subscribe to your youtube channel

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  2. Re:Chinese island by pereric · · Score: 4, Insightful

    so far they've pursued their irresponsible dreams responsibly, that could change at any time

    Mostly, from our point, yes. But probably many in in occupied Tibet or of the Uyghurs (and many other ethnical minorities) beg to differ.

  3. Re:Chinese island by gtall · · Score: 4, Insightful

    BS: China was hegemony in S. E. Asia to tell others what to do. It wants Taiwan. It wants all of the S. China Sea. It wants the U.S. far, far away and unable to protect S. Korea and Japan from Chinese military adventures. If it needs to go to war to get that and its Communist oiks still running the show, then it will do that. There will be no public opinion to oppose it since public opinion is not allowed in their kingdom.

    Want to see what their view of S. E. Asia is? Look at Tibet and what they did to its people.

  4. security experts were worried by oh_my_080980980 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "But Nick Timothy, May's influential joint chief of staff, also said last year that security experts were worried the state-owned Chinese group would have access to computer systems that could allow it to shut down Britain's energy production.

    "Rational concerns about national security are being swept to one side because of the desperate desire for Chinese trade and investment," Timothy wrote in October 2015 in a column for a conservative news and comment website. " http://www.reuters.com/article...

    Sorry China not everyone's your bitch....