It's frightening how much we rely on China these days. If they were to suddenly pull the plug on exports to the UK, we'd be pretty screwed. 170 million backhander is peanuts to keep them sweet.

http://www.britchamgd.com/ArticleSho...8&LanguageID=1

According to the data from HM Revenue and Customs, in 2008 China exports of goods to UK were £23.107 billion, an increase of 23% over 2007 figures. China imports were £5.072 billion of goods, an increase of 31% over 2007 figures.

Trade in goods between UK and China for the first seven months of 2009 was US$20.16 billion. UK export value to China reached US$4.19 billion (down 27.4%).
China are the masters of the universe these days, and there's not a lot we can do about it. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-universe.html