Re: The saddest part of this story.
If you were an exporter then you'd know that the fewer Yuan it takes to buy a Pound the better (your customers can either buy your product for less, or you charge them the same in their local currency and make a bigger profit). Importers like it the other way.
The Chinese government have basically pegged the Yuan to the US Dollar. All you're seeing is the poor performance of the Pound on the international currency markets.