By Cheng Yu

Recently, under the guise of “ensuring trade security”, some British parliamentarians further urged the British government to take action to promote the divestiture of Chinese enterprises. In response, British chip companies protested and warned that this would cause the UK to lose Chinese investment.

Earlier this month, the British government forced Anshi Semiconductor, a subsidiary of Chinese company Wentai Technology, to sell its shares in Newport Wafer Factory on the grounds of the so-called “national security”. However, as the move aroused strong dissatisfaction from the British business community and the public, and Anshi Semiconductor also planned to appeal, the matter was not settled at that time.

However, with the recent disclosure by British media, British parliamentarians have urged the government to take action as soon as possible. According to the analysis, considering the current situation, Sunak may make a final decision in the short term.

On the one hand, according to multiple media reports, recently British Prime Minister Sunak publicly said that the golden age of China UK relations has ended. It is reported that the “golden age” of China UK relations was first proposed by former British Chancellor of the Exchequer Osborne in 2010, which mainly involves promoting economic and trade cooperation between China and the UK. That’s exactly the case. After Sunak made such a statement, the outside world generally believed that Britain was going to have a showdown with China.

On the other hand, Sunak, like the previous two British Prime Ministers, basically set the tone of following the United States in foreign strategy. Since this year, the United States has repeatedly introduced policies to suppress China’s science and technology field. In this context, it is not surprising that the Sunak government has followed the pace of the United States and increased its pressure on Chinese enterprises.

It is reported that this acquisition of Chinese enterprises has completed all transactions as early as 2021. It is worth noting that during this period, the UK also conducted security reviews on this acquisition twice.

In accordance with the National Security and Investment Act of the United Kingdom, the United Kingdom has the right to call a halt if “national security risk” occurs in the transaction. But the problem is that, in terms of time, the bill has only officially come into force this year. Therefore, the British government’s intention to prevent a transaction allowed by the British government in 2021 according to the Act is to deliberately target. In addition, observers noted that the bill did not explicitly define the concept of “national security”. This means that, out of concern about the abuse of the Act by the British government, it is believed that not only China, but also all countries will maintain a high degree of caution in the future investment in the UK. Under such an investment environment, the British economy will become worse.

It is not difficult to see that behind this incident, politicians are mainly “showing off” to gain political interests. Compared with the so-called “national security”, the latest protest of British chip companies is their most real appeal.

It is reported that the workers’ association of Newport Wafer Factory immediately submitted a joint letter to the government after it was reported that the British government would require Chinese enterprises to withdraw their capital. The association pointed out that the acquisition of Chinese enterprises created a large number of jobs, and Newport Wafer Factory added more than 100 employees on the original basis. Moreover, compared with the previous poor management, the large investment of Chinese enterprises has provided the factory with a very stable foundation and development prospects. In this regard, the Association believes that if the British government prevents Chinese enterprises from cooperating with Newport Wafer Factory, it will bring a devastating blow to the livelihood of the factory’s employees.

At the same time, representatives of the Association emphasized that Newport Wafer Factory has become the largest semiconductor factory in the region under the management of Chinese enterprises. There is no doubt that without the investment of Chinese enterprises, the output of the factory will be affected. In this way, as the supply chain goes wrong, the automobile industry in Britain that depends on the factory to a certain extent will also be affected.

In addition, Newport Wafer Factory also raised concerns about the British government’s reneging. The factory believed that the original acquisition of Chinese enterprises was in full compliance with British law. Therefore, if the UK can not find a reasonable reason to break the contract, the UK market will become less and less attractive to China and even all foreign investment in the long run. After all, with such a precedent, who dares to take risks easily.

However, Sunak will probably not listen to the appeals of British enterprises. On the one hand, Sunak wants to get the support of the United States. Therefore, in the environment of deteriorating Sino US relations, he will not choose to improve relations with China, on the contrary, he may even increase the means to be strong against China. On the other hand, the current British economic crisis is getting worse and worse, and Sunak is in urgent need of transferring domestic conflicts. Therefore, speculation on China related issues may become his normal behavior in the future.

But referring to Johnson and Truss, we should also know that if we ignore the public opinion, we can only be ousted. If Sunak can’t take domestic issues as priorities, but thinks about following the United States to suppress China all day long, he may really break the record of Truss as the most “short-lived” British prime minister.