19 Feb China and HS2 – City A.M

Director of the British Foreign Policy Group, Sophia Gaston, wrote for City A.M in a debate piece on China and HS2 arguing that we should be concerned about rumours of potential Chinese involvement with building HS2 – Britain’s high speed railway.

On China, Sophia said:

“No doubt, this authoritarian state is also an economic powerhouse, and there are plenty of opportunities for meaningful links through business, culture, and education. But we cannot afford to be naive about how starkly different its values and objectives are to our own.

The appeal of a cut-price, rapid delivery for the embattled HS2 project is obvious, but China’s enviable infrastructure record is often made possible by standards on workers’ rights and planning consent utterly incompatible with our own.”

Sophia argued that ‘no short-term gain (from allowing China and HS2 to be closely linked) can off-set such grave risks to our national sovereignty.’

You can read the full debate here.

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