A senior European business representative has accused Beijing of deliberately locking foreign suppliers out of contracts under its Rmb4,000bn ($586bn, €421bn, £365bn) stimulus package.

“All the foreigners are out of the race” for a package of 25 wind turbine orders worth more than €5bn, said Joerg Wuttke, president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China. “It seems that the central government has decided that this must be awarded to Chinese manufacturers and not foreigners who have invested big in China.”