China Voices Concern Over Britain's Economy

Amid the hundreds of thousands of words uttered during this trade visit, it was a throwaway remark from the Chinese vice minister for finance that most caught my attention.

Should we be worried, I had asked him, about the recent fluctuations in the Chinese stock market? After all, George Osborne had just announced a plan for a potential link between the London and Shanghai stock markets, only weeks after China's own "Black Monday".

"In fact," said Shi Yao Bin, "in the same way as people in the UK have concerns about the Chinese economy, people in China have concerns about the UK economy."

The comment stuck out because, amid these highly-choreographed meetings, it was one of those rare remarks that seemed honest, straightforward and a little controversial.

That is par for the course for official dialogues such as these. While officials may raise their concerns with another country's policies behind the scenes, they are loath to criticise each other in public.

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So while many Britons, and even some in Government, have concerns about China's political and economic policies, they are unlikely to be aired during these talks.

Which is a little unsettling, given how significant are the issues at stake.

They include the question of energy security, with the Chancellor announcing a £2bn guarantee to encourage China to invest in a new nuclear reactor at Hinkley (and mooting future power stations down the line).

There's the issue of whether Britain is actually getting a good deal, given the size of the guarantee and the relatively high price it is paying for the energy.

Then there are those worries about the stability of the Chinese economy, with many economists warning that China is heading for a serious slowdown. Then again, the Chinese vice minister has a point: until recently it was Britain whose economy was looking in trouble.