Energy security

UK balks last minute at Hinkley Point nuclear deal with China, Beijing decries ‘suspicious approach’

Theresa May's government has backtracked just hours before signing a deal for a China-backed nuclear power station. Beijing state media says the UK is acting irrationally by delaying the project, jeopardizing the hard-won ‘Golden Era’ of China-UK ties.

The US$24 billion deal, with France's EDF as producer of two nuclear reactors and China’s General Nuclear Power Corp as principle investor, has been put on hold, despite Britain having abandoned coal as a source of electricity production.

A comment from China’s official Xinhua agency says that while Beijing understands and respects Britain's decision to reconsider the deal, it cannot understand the “suspicious approach that comes from nowhere to Chinese investment in making the postponement.”