A Chinese state-owned energy giant, which is investing in a major new nuclear plant in the UK, is facing espionage charges in the United States after allegedly conspiring to steal American technology.
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And it’s not just the UK: Today comes the news that “Australia’s government has preliminarily blocked Chinese and Hong Kong bidders from taking a controlling stake in the country’s largest electricity network, citing worries over national security”.
As a result the Prime Minister is being urged to pull the British project immediately.
“I am not sure the Chinese have anything to steal from Britain in the way of nuclear secrets”, he said.
According to the indictment, Ho is a nuclear engineer employed by CGN as a senior adviser and is also the owner of ETI.
Szuhsiung Ho, a senior adviser to CGN, is due in court in Tennessee next week accused of recruiting six American nuclear experts to obtain sensitive nuclear technology information for China, in a plot that threatened USA security.
The Hinkley deal came under fierce scrutiny when Mrs May paused the decision hours after the board of EDF, the French state-owned firm overseeing the project, gave it the go ahead last month.
“We have an enormous amount to play for in the post-Brexit world, we all want to deepen our economic ties with China post-Brexit”.
“No other OECD country would let China into its critical nuclear infrastructure, given its history of nuclear weapon proliferation”. May has already taken the diplomatic “hit” for this, so what’s she got to lose?
In a statement to the media, the Australian Treasurer Scott Morrison said the foreign investment proposals from Chinese and Hong Kong bidders “were contrary to the national interest”.
He said that the Government was right to review the terms of the deal and should seek to ensure better value for the taxpayer, rather than scrapping it altogether. Mutual trust should be treasured even more. The US court case follows an investigation by the FBI, and it is being prosecuted by the National Security Division of the Department of Justice.
The U.K. should greenlight a deal to build a nuclear plant using Chinese investment because it will be “dependent on China’s goodwill” after Brexit, Peter Mandelson, the former European commissioner for trade, said in a BBC Radio interview Wednesday. Ho allegedly wrote: “China has the budget to spend”.
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If found guilty, Ho faces a maximum sentence of life in prison and a fine of $250,000 (£192,000).
