In return, Beijing is getting engineering contracts to build port and road infrastructure, winning business for Chinese state-owned enterprises, and showing off what China is good at: building major infrastructure projects in record time.

FORBES: China In The Driver's Seat

Directors of engineering firm Spencer Davies, of Burry Port, west Wales, have been forced to take a pay freeze in the last financial year after profit margins tightened.

BBC: Brown plans to aid poorer areas