Chinese President Xi Jinping set to announce controversial nuclear investment in UK

TODAY China is announcing an important, strategic nuclear deal in the West. It’s a game-changer, but experts are worried.

LONDON, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 20: A Pro-China supporter wears stickers with the Chinese flag during counter protest held nearby Amnesty International who are protesting against claims of a deterioration in human rights and censorship of the internet and media during a state visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping on October 20, 2015 in London, England. The President of the People's Republic of China, Mr Xi Jinping and his wife, Madame Peng Liyuan, are paying a State Visit to the United Kingdom as guests of The Queen. They will stay at Buckingham Palace and undertake engagements in London and Manchester. The last state visit paid by a Chinese President to the UK was Hu Jintao in 2005. (Photo by Ben Pruchnie/Getty Images)

THE Chinese government is set to announce a major stake in a UK nuclear power plant, in a game-changing move that has prompted warnings from security experts.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to announce a deal on Wednesday with UK Prime Minister David Cameron that will allow China a 33 per cent stake in a $52 billion project to build the UK’s first nuclear power station in decades at Hinkley Point in Southwest England.

The deal will be between French company EDF And two Chinese companies, China General Nuclear Corporation and China National Nuclear Corporation and is expected to power five million homes.

However it also allows for the possibility a Chinese designed reactor could be built at another site owned by EDF northeast of London in a move that has sparked fears about the degree of control it could give the communist nation over Britain’s nuclear future.

Crowds waiting for Chinese President Xi Jinping at Horse Guards Parade in London as he heads towards his accommodation at Buckingham Palace. Picture: Yui Mok/Getty Images.

The UK Prime Minister has used the visit to announce billions worth of Chinese investment which he says will create 3900 jobs. Picture: Chris Jackson/Pool Photo.

The deal is the high point of a four-day visit to the UK by Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan, a wildly popular Chinese singer, in which they will be given the royal treatment and stay at Buckingham Palace.

It comes after UK Chancellor George Osborne visited China and will be used to announce more than $63 billion worth of trade and investment deals across creative industries, retail, healthcare, aerospace and technology sectors.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron said it will create 3900 new jobs and hailed a new “golden era” between the two countries.

“Trade and investment between our two nations is growing and our people-to-people links are strong,” he said. “This visit will be an opportunity to review all of these things but also talk about how the UK and China can work together on global issues such as climate change and tackling poverty. It’s a real opportunity to deepen our relationship.”

But the decision to allow a move that could see China eventually design and develop a nuclear project on UK soil, by a company who also produces nuclear weapons, has raised major security concerns and sparked fears the Treasury is blinded by investment dollars.

The visit has been a magnet for anyone wanting to highlight concerns over China’s human rights, cyberhacking and stance on Tibet. Above, a pro-China supporter turns out to welcome the President. Picture: Ben Pruchnie/Getty Images.

Bristol University professor of international development Jeffrey Henderson said the decision to allow a state-owned Chinese company to invest in an industry as strategic as power generation “verges on the insane”.

“The reality here is that involving state-owned Chinese companies in things as strategic as power generation … in Britain or any developed countries is that you effectively bring not merely the Chinese government but the Chinese Communist Party right into the heart of strategic sectors of your economy,” he said.

“By any stretch of the imagination that is extraordinary. It is particularly extraordinary and dangerous because geopolitical relations in the Asia-Pacific area are becoming unstable,” he added, citing the construction of islands in the South China Sea for military purposes.

“In that context it’s a very peculiar decision for a British government very closely allied to the US to bring state owned companies controlled by the Chinese government … into the very heart of the British economy and a strategically crucial part of it at that.”

Senior security forces have also rung alarm bells, telling The Timesthere is a “big division between the money men and the security side” over the deal. Some fear a “trapdoor” could be placed in computer systems allowing China to bypass British control of the plant in the event of a diplomatic stoush.

However others have dismissed security fears and said Britain needs to get on board or risk losing out in an era where China is responsible for around 15 per cent of global GDP and set to triple its outward direct investment by 2020.

A man with a Tibet flag is swamped by pro-China protesters during the start of the four-day official visit. Picture: AFP/JACK TAYLOR

HUMAN RIGHTS AND WILDLIFE POACHING

The President’s UK visit is also being used to highlight concerns over human rights and wildlife trafficking. A protest was organised by Amnesty International near Buckingham Palace on Tuesday after what they call a “marked deterioration” in human rights under the current President. The organisation claims 245 lawyers and activists have been targeted in the last three months with at least 30 people still “missing”.

The leader of Hong Kong’s umbrella revolution Joshua Wong, 19, who is facing five years in jail for his role in the protests, also warned assurances of human rights from the Chinese leadership could not be trusted.

“My message to David Cameron is that China has not kept its promise to the people of Hong Kong to deliver universal suffrage, so how can you trust President Xi to keep his word on the trade deals signed this week? You cannot. The Chinese government will not keep its promises on trade or on human rights,” he told The Independent ahead of a speech at the Oxford Student Union.

Chinese First Lady Peng Liyuan is a singer who is hugely popular in China. Picture: Alastair Grant — WPA Pool/Getty Images.

Prince William used his platform to raise awareness about endangered animals, telling an audience of 100 million Chinese youth in a televised speech they should stop buying poacher’s products.

“At this rate, children born this year — like my daughter Charlotte — will see the last wild elephants and rhinos die before their 25th birthdays,” he said.

On Wednesday, Xi Jingping is set to hold a bilateral meeting with David Cameron at Downing Street and hold a summit on investment and infrastructure, before heading to Manchester on Thursday.

China invested nearly $9.5 billion in Australia last year with private sector investors outstripping state-owned investment for the first time.

Most of the private investment was concentrated in commercial real estate while four “mega-sized transactions” costing more than $500 million were made into construction, port and mining resources, according to a KPMG and Knight Frank report.