As is well known, Britain has experienced something of a political earthquake in the last couple of months; the people voted to leave the European Union, and as a result, Prime Minister David Cameron resigned and was replaced by his conservative colleague Theresa May. Now, there is no reason to suppose that Mrs. May is in any way hostile to China or ignorant of the importance of Sino-British relationships. But she has taken the decision to delay final approval of the proposal to build a nuclear power station at Hinkley Point in Somerset, which was to have been built by a French company and financed largely by Chinese money. There has been speculation as to whether this delay signifies a newly awakened British mistrust of China; some have cited security concerns relating to a key piece of national infrastructure.

However, I think it is more likely that the hesitation over Hinkley Point has arisen due to a general review of financial commitments by the incoming Prime Minister. The proposed deal was negotiated by George Osborne, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer (Finance Minister), who was quickly relieved from his post by May's government. It is thus unsurprising that the new Prime Minister wishes to have another look at commitments made during Osborne's tenure, and it does not mean that she is casting doubt on the validity of commitments made on behalf of the Britain.

But, understandably, China is concerned about the future of this very substantial deal. Liu Xiaoming, the Chinese ambassador to London, wrote an article for the Financial Times newspaper saying that "China-UK relationship is at a crucial historical juncture" and that "mutual trust is the very foundation on which this [bilateral cooperation] is built".

It is, of course, vital to the bilateral relationship that the position over Hinkley Point is clarified. When Alok Sharma, the newly-appointed minister in-charge of Asia in the UK Foreign Office, visited China recently, he carried a letter from May to President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang. (May will herself be visiting China in September for the G20 Summit, and will be hoping for bilateral meetings with Chinese leaders in which this issue can be thrashed out.)

According to Chinese officials, the letter said that May "looks forward to strengthening cooperation with China on trade and business, and on global issues" and was meant to reassure the Chinese of the UK's commitment to Anglo-Chinese relations. Just a year after Xi Jinping's state visit and the announcement of a new "golden decade" for Sino-British relations, Britain certainly does not want to make a sharp U-turn and risk upsetting the entire relationship. But things have changed radically, with the vote to leave the European Union, and the emergence of a new government with an approach widely divergent from George Osborne's.

As I said above, these are not likely to involve the sort of mistrust expressed in the words "security concerns." It will be a French-built, not a Chinese-built project; and, in any case, as Liu Xiaoming pointed out, the UK has "a state-of-the-art supervision regime and legal system." UK domestic criticism of the Hinkley Point deal is likely to focus much more strongly on the economic and financial aspects of the deal; it is widely believed that Mr. Osborne gave away too much when the deal was negotiated in his enthusiasm to pull it off and that Britain may be in danger of providing guarantees which she will not be able to honour without severely damaging her own economy. Energy pricing is an extremely sensitive topic in the UK, and any government seen to be responsible for causing prices to rise still higher will be in trouble.

May may have caused a hitch in the smooth progress of the "golden decade" of Sino-British relations by hesitating over Hinkley Point, but it need not be a long-term hiatus in the relationship. If this particular project is likely to prove financially unsustainable in its present form, it is best that we realise it quickly and develop positive reformulations for the way forward, especially in such a promising field as nuclear cooperation. No one in Britain is interested in damaging relations with China, least of all at this highly sensitive point in the UK's diplomatic situation. I think it can be regarded as certain that May will be coming to China with constructive proposals that are sustainable and mutually beneficial to resolve this problem.

Tim Collard is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/timcollard.htm

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.

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