China has offered to fund and build high-speed rail links to a new Birmingham station

China has offered to invest in Britain’s railways by funding and building links to a new Birmingham station on the high-speed HS2 network.

The offer from China Railway Group comes shortly after David Cameron’s trip to the country, when Li Keqiang, the Chinese Prime Minister, offered to invest directly in the Government’s £50 billion high-speed rail line.

Ministers are promoting HS2 as a project that can establish Britain as a world leader in high-speed rail engineering. The Government, though, is sensitive to the fact that Beijing’s offers to finance infrastructure in other countries have often been contingent on awarding building contracts to Chinese companies.

In a letter to the leader of Birmingham City Council last month, China Railway Group offered to build connections from the