Atomic menace: follow the money in UK-China connection

Letter submitted to the Daily Mail on 9 June

It is hugely important that Boris Johnson has elevated to the key UK National Security Council, the responsibility to investigate the potentially destabilising role of Chinese inward investment into the UK economy.

Five 5 telecomms company, Huawei, has gained most political attention, but you are right to highlight (Mail) in your article on Monday (8 June) “Don’t let China  tighten grip on nuclear power” that China has big plans to take a massive financial sand controlling stake in the UK strategic nuclear sector.

An insightful article published last December by University of Nottingham researcher,  Martin Thorley, explores international engagement with China and Sino-British relations in an ‘Asia Dialogue’ and reveals the backstory behind China’s attempts to establish a high tech foothold in Britain. (https://theasiadialogue.com/2019/12/19/the-confused-and-uneven-response-to-chinese-party-state-influence-a-symptom-of-corporate-influence-and-capitalisation-part-two-practice/)

Five 5 telecomms company, Huawei, has gained most political attention, but you are right to highlight (Mail) in your article on Monday (8 June) “Don’t let China  tighten grip on nuclear power” that China has big plans to take a massive financial sand controlling stake in the UK strategic nuclear sector.

An insightful article published last December by University of Nottingham researcher,  Martin Thorley, explores international engagement with China and Sino-British relations in an ‘Asia Dialogue’ and reveals the backstory behind China’s attempts to establish a high tech foothold in Britain.

Initially, it was a victory for the Treasury over security specialists allowed the British government to sign an agreement with Beijing to significantly finance nuclear reactors in the UK. The then Chancellor George Osborne asserted during a now notorious visit to Beijing that China’s involvement in the Hinkley new nuclear plant – a £25 billion gamble -  “opened the door for majority Chinese ownership of a subsequently nuclear project in Bradwell”.

Ten years earlier, under Gordon Brown’s Labour government, the then energy secretary John ( now Lord) Hutton’s Office for Nuclear Development (OND) hired Dr Tim Stone as its “expert chair”, seconded from  business analysts KPMG.

During his time advising ministers on nuclear, Dr Stone, who now chairs the nuclear sector’s main lobby organization, the Nuclear Industry Association (NIA) saw KPMG,  receive  a very significant  £ 4,363767 of taxpayers’ money from the UK government for its apparently impartial advice on the Hinkley and other nuclear reactor deals.

As it happens, KPMG had been hired by China General Nuclear (CGN), the huge Chinese state-owned firm bidding for projects in Britain.

The other key Government “independent” nuclear advisor was elite bankers, the Rothschild Group, who just like KPMG, also had CGN as one of its clients.

Rothschild’s former director, Oliver Letwin, was at the time of some key decisions the top Cabinet Office minister who reassured Theresa May’s 2016 security review regarding fears about Beijing’s involvement at  Hinkley. This pattern is another elite bank, Lazards, which has interests in China, also earned £2.6 million from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) for its “independent” advice on Hinkley.

Astonishingly, Lazards it was also an advisor to EDF - Hinkley’s  developer -  on the Hinkley go ahead decision.

When the House of Lords Science and Technology committee produced a report into the UK’s nuclear energy requirements it employed a Professor Tom Scott from the University of Bristol as its “specialist independent advisor”.

In 2018 Bristol University hosted guests from CGN, who promoted the so-called Hualong One (HPR1000) reactor, the design destined for Bradwell in Essex , and currently  the subject of a public consultation.

A freedom of information request by Martin Thorley to Bristol university last year  revealed that in 2019 alone  EDF invested £1.3 million in research at the university,  £210,000 of which  going to Prof Scott’s research team.

The UK National Security Council should look into all these nefarious links between British- based advisors and Chinese and French nuclear lobbyists and atomic salesmen.

A good maxim always is follow the money!