The UK government is to pay Chinese state-owned power group CGN over £100mn to exit Britain’s £20bn Sizewell C nuclear energy project in a bid to reduce Beijing’s involvement in the country’s infrastructure.
The payment to CGN for its 20 per cent stake in the proposed nuclear plant in Suffolk is part of a £679mn UK state investment in Sizewell first announced by former prime minister Boris Johnson in September and finalised on Tuesday.
It highlights how relations between London and Beijing have cooled since a nuclear deal in 2015 between then prime minister David Cameron and President Xi Jinping kicked off CGN’s involvement in the project.