Hinkely Point's Chinese backer faces industrial espionage charges in US
11 Aug 2016
The Chinese energy company China General Nuclear Power (CGN), which is poised to invest in the UK's Hinkley Point nuclear power station, is facing nuclear espionage charges in the US.
The state-owned company is accused of conspiracy to steal US industry secrets to aid the development of Chinese technology, The Times reported.
Szuhsiung Ho, senior advisor to CGN, is due to appear in court next week over charges of recruiting US experts to find out secret information.
Ho has denied the charges and his lawyer contends he was involved in commercial consultancy for CGN.
The revelation comes after former business secretary Lord Mandelson warned Theresa May over the Hinkley Point project decision, which the government was going to take next month.
Any delay would risk putting at risk increasingly important economic ties with China.
The government's decision to review the £18-billion Hinkley point nuclear power plant last month, amid suggestions that the government harboured concerns over the Chinese state investing in critical UK infrastructure, was greeted with shock (See: UK to review Hinkley Point nuclear power project). According to Lord Mandelson it would be "globally suicidal" for China, which had a one-third stake in the project, to be seen to be interfering with another country's security.
Meanwhile, according to Simon Jenkins writing in The Guardian, the prime minister did the right thing when she cancelled the ceremony for signing the contract.
He said that Hinkley had become a sacrificial symbol of the UK's desperation to ''punch above its weight''.
He added, the incompetence of the Blair, Brown and Cameron governments had ensured that the UK would soon be chronically short of baseload (that is, not wind) electricity generation.
New generations of French nuclear stations were expected to offer salvation but these had not worked anywhere, and to ''pretend that Hinkley is the answer has long been not just reckless but absurdly expensive.''
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