PRESS REVIEW – Friday, July 17: China reacts after the UK nationalises its last remaining virgin steel factory, expropriating Chinese Jingye Group. In other news, low rainfall in May followed by three intense heatwaves have 100 French departments under water restrictions. Also, in Central Asia, a team of Spanish scientists want to refill a long-desertified lake, in the hopes of preventing further CO2 release. Finally, in the UK, a beaver has found love.
The UK government voted to nationalise British Steel, with its one remaining steelworks in Scunthorpe. Reportedly the move was to save 4,000 jobs, and because “if this were to disappear, we [the country] would become at the mercy of international markets", according to the UK business secretary, as reported in The Guardian. The Global Times reports that China has condemned the action, as the owners before the vote were the Chinese Jingye Group. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce said that the British Government has "disregarded Jingye Group's important contributions to the British economy", and " seriously undermined Jingye's legitimate rights". They say the company took over a loss-making company and "injected substantial funds" into the company. However, the UK publication The Times reports that the government first stepped in 15 months ago to prevent the plant from closing, referring to “sabotage” by the Chinese owners who were apparently trying to run the plant into the ground to increase British dependency on Chinese imports.
