Downing Street has rejected concerns that Chinese investment in the UK's nuclear power industry could pose a threat to the country’s national security.
Fears from senior military and intelligence figures, who have warned Ministers that plans to allow China to take a stake in sensitive national infrastructure could pose a security risk, have been raised ahead of next week’s state visit by the communist regime’s leader Xi Jinping.
The UK will roll out the red carpet for the Chinese President, who along with his wife Peng Liyuan, will stay as the Queen's guest at Buckingham Palace.
They will spend three days in London where the Chinese leader will hold talks with David Cameron in No 10 before joining him for dinner at Chequers. A fourth and final day will be spent carrying out engagements in Manchester.
In a sign of the growing trade and investment links between the UK and China, an announcement on Chinese backing for the new nuclear power station being built by EDF at Hinkley Point, Somerset, could be made during Mr Xi's visit.
Chancellor George Osborne has already offered a £2 billion UK Government guarantee to help secure funding for the Hinkley Point C plant and indicated that the next step may be a Chinese-designed, Chinese-built nuclear plant at Bradwell in Essex.
One of the Chinese backers is the China National Nuclear Corporation, a state-owned body, which helped to develop the country's nuclear weapons.
However, an intelligence source said: "There is a big division between the money men and the security side. The Treasury is in the lead and it isn't listening to anyone; they see China as an opportunity but we see the threat."
When asked if the Prime Minister was worried about any security threat, his spokesman said: “We have the Office for Nuclear Regulation, which is our independent nuclear regulator, which has very strict regulations in place in terms of how nuclear plants are operated and the security around them and that has done all the due diligence and is content with things as they stand. But we will continue to ensure that all security and other regulations are followed at all times.”
Lord Mandelson, the new President of the Great Britain-China Centre, also downplayed any security threat, saying: "Vigilance is justified but security concerns should not be allowed to drive knee-jerk responses to Chinese investment.”
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