UK Rejects Chinese Wind Power Investment, Beijing Warns of Negative Impact on Bilateral Trade

The UK government has expressed its lack of support for the use of products from Chinese wind power equipment manufacturer Ming Yang Smart Energy Group. Ming Yang Smart Energy Group intended to invest £1.5 billion (approximately NT$63 billion) to establish the UK's largest and first integrated wind turbine manufacturing base in Scotland. The UK government considers the related products to pose national security risks, preventing their participation in UK offshore wind power projects. On April 14, a spokesperson for China's Ministry of Commerce stated that the UK's exclusion of Chinese products from wind power projects, based on national security, contradicts the UK's long-held principles of an open and free market. This action is deemed detrimental to local economic development and public welfare in the UK, and will negatively affect pragmatic bilateral economic and trade cooperation, which China firmly opposes. The spokesperson noted that UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, during his visit to China in January this year, explicitly expressed a willingness to strengthen cooperation in various fields including trade, investment, finance, and environmental protection to boost mutual economic growth and benefit the people of both nations. China hopes the UK government will provide a fair, just, and non-discriminatory business environment for Chinese enterprises and genuinely promote pragmatic cooperation in the economic and trade sectors to foster healthy development of bilateral relations.