U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May has written to Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang to express her desire to enhance trade and strategic ties, her nation's new Asia envoy said.

Alok Sharma, on his first official visit to China since being appointed minister for Asia and the Pacific last month, told Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing on Monday that the U.K. attaches great importance to cooperation with Beijing, according to an online statement by China's Foreign Ministry. Sharma called China an "important global strategic partner."

The message comes amid growing uncertainty over what was only recently touted as a "golden era" of bilateral relations. May last month postponed approval of the £18 billion ($23 billion) Hinkley Point nuclear power plant in southwest England — the first to be built in the country in three decades. The decision stunned Chinese and French backers who had hoped to sign construction contracts immediately.