Britain accommodates China, not India

Britain accommodates China, not India

Sunanda K Datta-RayUpdated: Wednesday, May 29, 2019, 10:24 PM IST
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As competition between India and China extends even to studying in the United Kingdom, New Delhi must be delighted with the latest suggestion that India may be making up for lost ground. The British government’s figures show the first increase — of 27 per cent — since 2010 in the number of long-term study visas granted to Indian nationals.

This is not an issue between India and China. It’s between India and the UK and a feature of the reputation Theresa May has gained of being as ungenerous as possible with visas, especially to people from Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. If she is prepared to make handsome exceptions for the Chinese, it’s only because of the money China is pouring into a Britain whose imminent exit from the European Union leaves it feeling isolated and uncertain.

The Indian situation has a long lineage. Keith Rowley, prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago in the West Indies, recalled in an interview during the recent Commonwealth summit in London the picture of an Indian woman with a placard reading “We are here because you were there”. Mr Rowley adds, “And that speaks loudly of what this is all about.” From Britain’s point of view, that is the past. China is the future.

China ranks second as an investor in Britain. India lost its position as the third largest investor to France but now shares the fourth spot with Australia and New Zealand. What matters more is that while China’s government, business and industry speak and operate as a single entity to press for the national objective, Indians speak in many voices.

The China Investment Corporation paid £10.7 billion to acquire the British firm Logicor, which owns around 50 warehouses in the UK and continental Europe. In return, although nothing so obvious is stated, the British issue visas to Chinese visitors. Tatas bought Jaguar Land Rover for £1.15 billion only to save British jobs.

While generous student visas for Chinese anticipate even greater Chinese investment, those for Indians cannot be divorced from historical and continuing immigration. The proposed India-UK trade agreement cannot be concluded until this difficulty is removed. It rankles deeply that while only 16,000 student visas were issued to Indians last year, the Chinese were rewarded with 88,000. While 42 per cent of the 442,375 postgraduate students are from outside the EU, an official report says “The number of Chinese students far exceeds any other nationality; almost one third of non-EU students in the UK is from China.”

The government gives no reason for treating two Asian countries differently. But obviously one reason is the suspicion that in Britain (as in Australia), young Indians who seek student visas are often job-seekers with permanent settlement in mind. This is rampant throughout South Asia. Young Pakistani men used to come in as spouses until the government ruled that importing brides was acceptable but not bridegrooms. Britain had to terminate a scheme giving easy access to Bangladeshi cooks and chefs to keep the curry industry going when it turned out that many of the applicants had nothing to do with restaurants.

As for India, the British authorities have closed down a number of bogus educational institutions whose only reason for existence was to extend student credentials to potential immigrants in exchange for a hefty charge. With annual academic fees in the region of Rs 9 lakhs (not including the cost of housing, food, transport, books and entertainment), not too many Indians can any longer afford to go to Britain only to study.

A more genuine case can perhaps be made out for those already in the country who claim that having finished their post-graduate studies, they wish to stay on for a couple of years to gain practical experience through employment. But, again, such applicants are also suspected of being potential immigrants.

Not the Chinese who come under official auspices. Recent studies show that Britain probably isn’t even the first choice for many of them. An analysis of posts on Weibo, a Chinese microblogging site, found that the UK came second to the United States in the number of discussions about the countries’ cultures. The favourite overseas destinations were Japan and the US, with the UK coming third.

But individual wishes are not the major factor. What matters is that China’s investment touched a record high last year after a six-fold increase since 2013. Chinese foreign direct investment in the UK reached £15 billion during the year, up from about £7 billion in 2016. A contributory factor for expectations of the trend continuing is that unlike the EU and the US, the UK is not making foreign investment difficult. In contrast, the US government has rejected some significant would-be Chinese acquisitions, the most recent being the rebuff Donald Trump’s administration gave this month citing security concerns to Ant Financial’s intended $1.2 billion acquisition of the US money transfer company, MoneyGram International.

Britain isn’t the only beneficiary of Chinese ambition and US resistance. Surveys show a consistent growth of China’s FDI in countries covered by the Belt and Road Initiative, especially in transport, utilities, logistics, and infrastructure. Chinese FDI in Europe rose by 76 per cent, thanks to the delayed completion of ChemChina’s record $43 billion takeover of the Swiss agribusiness company, Syngenta.

But some of the best known British brands are now controlled by Chinese capital. Among them are the oil giant BP, the hallowed Barclays Bank — by far the largest single UK investment by the Chinese government or a Chinese company (which comes to much the same thing), in this case China Development Bank — another bank, Standard, the popular food chain Pizza Express with restaurants in every high street, the fashion department store, House of Fraser, Weetabix and Sunseeker yachts. Also such strategic outfits as Thames Water and the Hinckley Point nuclear power station. Some trade union leaders are even complaining of vital infrastructure installations being handed over lock, stock and barrel to the Chinese.

In return, the UK simplified visa applications through a partnership with Belgium which allows travel permits for Britain and Schengen area countries to be processed in the same centre. The move followed lobbying from UK retailers and business groups who complained that London was missing out on high-spending Chinese visitors who could shop in Paris, Milan and Berlin using just one visa covering the 26 border-free Schengen zone nations. The UK-Belgium agreement means that Chinese tourists and business people will be able to obtain a visa for Britain and the Schengen area through a single visit to one of three joint application hubs in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai.

Mrs May introduced this revolutionary change and streamlined the system when she was home secretary. She was believed then to be the most obstructive about issuing Commonwealth — especially Indian — visas. Her approach hasn’t changed, which is to China’s advantage.

Sunanda K Datta-Ray is the author of several books and a regular media columnist.

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