The UK just seized a Chinese-owned steel company. China is not happy about it.
On July 16, 2026, the UK government completed the full nationalization of British Steel, which had been owned by China’s Jingye Group since 2020. The next day, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs fired back, calling the move a violation of market principles and vowing to take measures to protect its business interests.
What actually happened
Jingye Group bought British Steel six years ago with promises to modernize operations and inject new life into the company’s aging facilities. Those promises ran headfirst into persistent operational losses.
By April 2025, things had gotten bad enough that the UK government stepped in to assume operational control of British Steel’s Scunthorpe facility, essentially to keep the lights on and prevent mass layoffs. That was the soft version. The hard version came this week.
