Expect retaliation over Huawei, UK warned

An Australian expert on the Chinese Communist Party’s global influence has warned Britain about China’s involvement in the country’s nuclear power plants.

Clive Hamilton, a professor at Charles Sturt University in Canberra, also said that Britain should expect retaliation for banning the Chinese telecommunication company Huawei from its 5G network.

Mr Hamilton told a Foreign Press Association meeting in London “it will be a loss of face to do nothing, something will happen” in retaliation after Britain reversed Huawei’s involvement in the country’s telecommunications.

 “You can be sure there is enormous communications traffic at the moment between Beijing and the Chinese Embassy in London,” he said, which would be discussing the politics, retaliations and calibration of their response.

He expected “no wild action” but instead anticipated pressure that would not alienate any of the Chinese Communist Party’s friends and mouthpieces in Britain would be applied.

He said the Chinese Communist Party would use certain industries which it believed had the most influence over the government, and would use UK business people “to do their dirty work for them”.

Mr Hamilton, along with German co-author Mareike Ohlberg, wrote Hidden Hand: How the Chinese Communist Party is Reshaping the World, which has created waves for publicising links of various powerbrokers and members of the British establishment to expansive Chinese influence.

The UK has quickly repositioned its relationship with China in recent weeks after the COVID-19 fallout and new Chinese security laws that transgress the Sino-British treaty in Hong Kong. There is now greater scrutiny on other Chinese investments in key British infrastructure, including energy supplies.

Mr Hamilton pointed out that the chairman of China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN) He Yu was also the secretary of the Communist Party cell inside the company.

“In order words, when CGN is making a major decision where to invest or whatever decision it makes, Chinese Communist Party considerations are front of mind,” Mr Hamilton said.

CGN is a third investor in Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant in Somerset, has a 20 per cent option at nearby Sizewell C nuclear power plant and a majority ownership Bradwell B plant in Essex, which is still at initial consultation level. At all three nuclear plants CGN’s partner is the French company EDF.

Mr Hamilton said the exclusion of Huawei was “absolutely vital” to the Five Eyes security alliance of Britain, the United States, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. He also highlighted how Beijing was putting a lot of effort into the City of London’s financial hub because it wanted to advance its currency, the yuan.

“China has long-term goals, not five years or even ten, but longer term — they want the yuan or RMB (renminbi) to be internationalised and become the global currency; they are exerting a lot of influence to very good effect,” he said.