China Development Bank provides a £798.4 million GBP loan for the Hinkley Point C (HPC) Nuclear Power Plant Project

Project narrative

On October 20, 2015, China Development Bank (CDB) and China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN) signed the UK Memorandum on HPC Nuclear Power and Overseas Project Financing (《英国HPC核电及海外项目融资合作备忘录》in Chinese) to provide a large, low-interest, long-term foreign currency loan for the Hinkley Point C (HPC) Nuclear Power Plant Project. Then, circa September 2016, CDB issued £4 billion GBP in loan facilities to an unspecified borrowing institution, and prepared to subsequently issue additional loan facilities worth £4 billion GBP to an unspecified borrowing institution. Additional details are unknown. The first set of facilities is captured via Record ID#90461; the second set of facilities is captured via Record ID#90465. Then, on October 8, 2016, CDB issued a £798.4 million GBP loan to an unspecified borrowing institution for the HPC Nuclear Power Plant Project (captured via Record ID#90455). Furthermore, in 2016, China Wind Power Development Limited — a Hong Kong-incorporated wholly-owned subsidiary of Definite Arise Limited (DAL) (Chinese: 毅昇有限公司), which is a British Virgin Islands-incorporated special purpose vehicle (SPV) and joint venture of Huayuan Renewable Energy Co., Ltd., China Nuclear Power Limited, and Centire Holdings Company Limited — entered into a £6,341,580,000 GBP shareholder loan agreement with International Nuclear Investment Limited (an England and Wales-incorporated wholly-owned subsidiary of China Wind Power Development) for the HPC Nuclear Power Plant Project (captured via Record ID#111061). The loan was interest-free and carried a maturity period of approximately 10 years with maturity in July 2026. International Nuclear Investment wholly-owns England and Wales-incorporated Libra International Limited, which wholly-owns England and Wales-incorporated Sagittarius International Limited which then holds the 33.5% equity stake in NNH Holding Company (HPC) Limited, the holding company for NNB Generation Company (NPC) Limited (which directly works on HPC). The £6,341,580,000 shareholder loan (facility) appears to have achieved a disbursement rate of at least 6.8% (£433,920,000 out of £6,341,580,000). In the same year (2016), China Wind Power Development Limited entered into a £1,159,420,000 GBP shareholder loan agreement with International Nuclear Investment Limited for the HPC Nuclear Power Plant Project (captured via Record ID#111068). The loan was interest-free and carried a maturity period of approximately 10 years with maturity in July 2026. Then, International Nuclear Investment Limited on-lent the £1,159,420,000 GBP to its subsidiary, Libra International Limited, on an interest-free basis, repayable on October 9, 2026; and Libra subsequently on-lent the £1,159,420,000 GBP to its subsidiary Sagittarius International Limited. Sagittarius then provided shareholder loans to NNB Holding Company (HPC) Limited. As of December 31 2016, the balance of the loan was £910,666,824 GBP following an interest charge of £4,685,924 GBP for the period. Roughly four months later, on February 15, 2017, CDB signed a £2 billion GBP loan agreement with Definite Arise Limited (DAL) for the HPC Nuclear Power Plant Project (captured via Record ID#89650). The loan contract number was 4430201601100001910. CDB served as an arrangement bank, agency, bank, and guarantee agency bank for this loan, and CDB also signed a common terms agreement with DAL. As of December 31, 2019, the loan’s outstanding amount was £1.594 billion GBP (RMB 14.585 billion). CGNPC International Limited, a subsidiary of China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN) served as a guarantor of the loan, and signed a guarantee contract with CDB to provide a joint liability guarantee for the loan. CNIC Corporation Limited provided a counter-guarantee to CGNPC International Limited proportional to the 20% equity in DAL held by its subsidiary Centire Holdings Company Limited. Huachen Energy Co., Ltd. provided a counter-guarantee to CGNPC International Limited in proportion to its 10% equity in DAL held by its subsidiary Huayuan Renewable Energy Co., Ltd. When it joined DAL, Taikang Life Insurance Company Limited provided a counter-guarantee for the 13.3% equity stake in DAL held by its subsidiary TK New Energy HK Investment Company. In June 2018, Chinese privately-owned insurer Taikang Life Insurance Company Limited announced an investment of £1.075 billion GBP ($1.4 billion USD) into the project through DAL, earning it a 13.3% equity stake into DAL from CGN's stake held by China Nuclear Power Limited. Of this investment, a maximum of £544 million GBP came from Taikang's own funds, while the remaining £531 million GBP came from a loan provided by CDB. This loan is captured via Record ID#90466. The Hinkley Point C (HPC) Nuclear Power Project is a joint venture of DAL (representing the Chinese enterprises) and the French state-owned electric utility company Électricité de France S.A. (EDF), with DAL holding a 33.5% equity stake and EDF holding a 66.5% equity stake in Nuclear New Build Generation Company Limited (NNBG or NNB Generation Company (HPC) Limited), which is responsible for building and operating HPC. The HPC Nuclear Power Project involves the construction of two nuclear power units in Somerset, England, with a total capacity of 3,260 MW using European Pressurized Reactor/Evolutionary Power Reactor (EPR) technology, able to meet 7% of the total electricity demand of the United Kingdom and provide nuclear power to about six million customers when in operation. The plant was expected to reduce about nine million tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually during its 60-year operating lifetime. It is the largest nuclear power project in the United Kingdom in the past 20 years. It is expected that those nuclear power units will commence into commercial operation in May 2025. The plant was expected to provide 25,000 job opportunities and 1,000 apprenticeships and host more than 5,600 people during construction. This project was also reportedly the largest investment project in Europe by Chinese companies. The two EPR reactors at HPC were the 5th and 6th EPRs constructed in the world and the first ordered by an industrialized country since the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. Prior to implementation, the total cost of the project fell somewhere between £16 billion GBP and £20 billion GBP. A long-term offtake arrangement, known as ‘contract for difference’ (CfD), was executed relating to the price of the electricity generated by the Hinkley Point C Nuclear Power Project to ensure its stable revenue generated from the sale of the electricity. The CfD provided a strike price for the developer of £92.50 GBP/MWh (in 2012 prices), with a possible reduction to £89.50 GBP/MWh (in 2012 prices) if EDF took a final investment decision (FID) on their proposed Sizewell C project, for a 35-year term from commissioning; in other words, for each MWh of electricity generated by HPC, the developer would be paid the difference between the strike price and the market reference price (a composite of wholesale price indices) for electricity sold into the market for the duration of the contract, with the generator paying the difference back if the market reference price rose above the strike price. In October 2015, China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN) and EDF signed an Agreement for Investment in the Construction of Nuclear Power Projects in the United Kingdom, which laid the terms of the cooperation between the CGN and EDF on Hinkley Point C Nuclear Power Plant Project. Then, in December 2016, Huayuan Renewable Energy Co., Ltd. signed a Supplemental Shareholder Agreement with China Nuclear Power Limited (an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of CGN) and Centire Holdings Company Limited (an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of CNIC Corporation Limited) to acquire a 10% equity stake in DAL. Britain's Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy announced a deal to support the £18 billion GBP project (in 2016 prices) on September 29, 2016. Wintime Energy Co. Ltd. planned to invest £400 million GBP ($507 million USD), CGN planned to invest £2.78 billion GBP, and CNIC planned to invest £795 million GBP into the project. Taikang Group intended to invest £1.075 billion GBP ($1.4 billion USD). As of May 11, 2017, China Nuclear Power Limited invested £65 million GBP on behalf of Huachen Energy Co., Ltd., which itself intended to invest £89 million GBP in the project (£65 million GBP as reimbursement for China Nuclear Power Limited's investment on its behalf). Huachen Energy Co., Ltd. also agreed to make capital contributions of £398 million GBP to the HPC Nuclear Power Plant Project between 2017 and 2025. In 2017, Nucleus Commercial Finance Ltd. provided a specialist construction firm with a £3.8 million GBP alternative finance funding line (£1.8 million GBP in property finance combined with £2 million GBP) in invoice finance) to support its work at HPC over 10 years. Due to its highly complex nature as a nuclear power station, the HPC Nuclear Power Plant Project has required a large number of contractors. According to media reports, over 400 large and small businesses in northern England were contracted to work on the project between September 2016 and September 2021 — in addition to the major contractors. Areva NP (now known as Framatome) provided the nuclear steam supply system and instrumentation and control for the two reactors. Alstom was originally set to provide the turbines. A French-British joint venture between Bouygues Travaux Publics and Laing O’Rourke (BYLOR) won the main civil works contract worth £2 billion GBP in 2012. British-Dutch joint venture KIER-Nuttall BAM Nuttall Earthworks JV was awarded a £203 million GBP earthworks contract to move over 5.5 million cubic meters of material to create complex terracing structures and a road network for the plant. Costain was awarded a £200 million GBP contract to design and contract the plant's water-cooling systems that would take in cooling water from the Severn Estuary for the reactors. Express Reinforcements won a £100 million GBP contract to supply the BYLOR joint venture with 200,000 tons of reinforcing steel. Premier Interlink WACO UK Ltd won a £40 million contract to supply prefabricated site accommodations equal to 38,000 square meters. Framatome was also responsible for the long-term fuel fabrication and supply, while was charged with preliminary fuel fabrication activities such as uranium extraction, conversion, and enrichment. Alstom won a contract in July 2011 to provide two 1,750 MW conventional turbine islands and manufacture heavy forging for critical reactor components. In 2015, General Electric Co (GE) bought the power assets of Alstom, including the $1.9 billion USD contract. As a result of this transaction, GE Steam Power provided two 1,770 MW ARABELLE steam turbines for HPC. Cavendish Boccard Nuclear, a joint venture between Cavendish Nuclear (itself a subsidiary of Britain's Babcock International Group plc) and France's Boccard were responsible for mechanical pipework and equipment installation at the plant. ACTAN, a joint venture between South Korea's Doosan Babcock and French firms Axima Concept S.A. and Tunzini Nucleaire was responsible for heating, ventilation and air conditioning works. Laing O’Rourke was responsible for construction of the project's workers’ campus accommodation. ABB UK was responsible for power transmission works. Premier Interlink WACO UK Ltd was charged with constructing temporary structures for the project. Weir Group PLC was responsible for works relating to the pumps for the reactor's cooling water. Clyde Union was responsible for the provision of main pumps for the feedwater system and cooling water system. The Somerset Infrastructure Alliance, a joint venture between Sweden's Skanska AB and British firms RK Bell and Forest Traffic Services, was responsible for the provision of site infrastructure services including site road maintenance, landscaping, signage and fencing. Construction Operations Management Alliance (COMA), an alliance led by Wessex Water Services Limited and including R&M Utilities, Hydroline Solutions Ltd., MMES 2012 LTD, and Boulting Group, was charged with providing construction utilities and support services. Somerset Larder, a company established by six Somerset food producers for the project, was responsible for catering. HOST, a joint venture between four Somerset companies, was responsible for the management of the workers’ campus accommodations. Somerset Passenger Solutions, a 50:50 joint venture between First Group's Buses of Somerset and JJP Holdings South West's Southern National, was responsible for bus transportation for workers. KBR provided project management of site operations and equipment contract management. Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. was project manager for the building and civil work. Turner & Townsend supplied project controls and project management. Gleeds, Faithful+Gould, and Mace provided contract management services. G4S provided security for the project. Aggregate Industries constructed the Cannington bypass, park and rides and highway improvements for the project. At the request of EDF, in September 2018, France's Altrad, joint venture Balfour Beatty Bailey, Cavendish Nuclear, and Doosan Babcock, formed MEH Joint Venture, a partnership between HPC and all of its Tier One MEH (Mechanical, Electrical and HVAC) and support services contractors working on the project to integrate and coordinate the delivery of MEH equipment, as well as provide for a project management office, managing scheduling and sequencing of mechanical and electrical activities, and optimizing works. Edvance, a joint venture between EDF and Framatome responsible for work on the EPR technology at HPC, contracted MI-GSO | PCUBED (M|P) to support the project engineering teams by managing the project controls and communication between the different contractors and engineers. Kilnbridge won a £10 million GBP contract on the construction of the heads structures, reinforced concrete structures necessary for the cooling system. CH2M served as a consultant for this subcontract. Balfour Beatty, in addition to working on the MEH Joint Venture, participated in the tunneling and marine works package for the project and won a £214 million GBP contract from the National Grid for the construction of overhead lines to Hinkley C. SNC-Lavalin Group supported Nuclear New Build Generation Company Limited (NNBG or NNB GenCo) with the development and assisted in the securing a Nuclear Site License from the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) for over 20 years. SNC-Lavalin Group also had a Professional Services framework contract with NNB GenCo for the provision of engineering and technical services. AECOM provided a geotechnical design for the power station, as well analysis and assessments on equipment for excavations and tunneling, in order to plan a suitable construction sequence enabling safe and efficient excavation and support. Stromag GmbH delivered specialized brakes for multiple cranes at the site, including those that will lift radioactive uranium fuel rods from the very heart of the reactors. Nexans S.A. won a six-year contract worth around €20 million EUR ($24.3 million) to supply 3,000 kilometers of specialized nuclear cables for the power plant including medium voltage (MV) and low voltage (LV) power, control and instrumentation cables for pumps, valves, safety systems, power supplies and control room monitoring, to be installed inside and outside the nuclear containment area. Dextra was entrusted with the supply of mechanical splices of concrete reinforcement for parts of HPC, particularly the reactor’s aircraft impact protection shell, via Griptec couplers and headed links. BYLOR awarded a four-year £20 million GBP contract Sarens NV to perform over 700 lifts of pipe sections, steel rings, machinery equipment, and each steel containment liner and dome using Sarens SGC-250, the world's biggest land-based crane and often referred to as 'Big Carl'. GE Steam Power Ltd. contracted ENKA UK Construction Limited (ENKA UK) to prefabricate, install, and construct all piping systems of the power island at the power station. Atkins was responsible for the delivery of a detailed design of technical galleries (underground tunnels), classified buildings, and unclassified buildings, using modeling through Tekla Structures. Vulcain Engineering provided design support in civil engineering, piping engineering, mechanical engineer, project control and management, expediting, inspection and testing on matters related to HPC. Assystem won a multi-year contract to serve as an alliance partner in the commission of the EPR technology at Hinkley. Microsoft solutions provider Avanade, part owned by Microsoft, provided cloud infrastructure using its Cloud Foundations methodology in combination with the Microsoft Azure platform, to HPC. In early 2019, EDF Energy awarded a six-year contract to Telent to design, install, and commission the communications and information technology (IT) infrastructure at HPC, including a dual data center infrastructure, wireless and wired communications networks connecting 150 buildings, a multi-service on-site radio network, closed-circuit television (CCTV), a public address and voice alarm system, TV distribution, and an integrated command and communications system. In November 2021, EDF awarded Tecnatom S.A. a five-year £30 million GBP contract for the Pre-Service Inspection services at HPC, where Technatom would provide non-destructive services to the plant focusing on the assessment of the integrity of the critical components located in the primary and balance of plant circuits through examinations and the delivery of self-developed techniques and tooling to EDF. Darchem Engineering won contracts to construct specialized tanks, stainless steel liners and other precision equipment for HPC. KAEFER Limited fabricated specialist steel ductwork sections for the reactor buildings. Bilfinger UK won a multi-million-pound contract to lead the fabrication and installation works for the nuclear steam supply system and manufacture 56 kilometers of specialized pipework. Mike Morgan Electrical Services participated in an unspecified local joint venture that was awarded a multi-million-pound contract for the project. Specialist steel fabrication company William Hare had contracts for HPC worth over £135 million GBP. Vessco Engineering had several contracts worth a total of about £15 million GBP to manufacture pressure vessels and associated components for the plant. Special Formwork won contracts worth about £1.5 million GBP for vertical formwork and sea wall formwork at the plant. Osprey won contracts worth £5 million GBP for the provision of marine and heavy logistics support to the project, including the delivery of tunnel boring machines and the handling of thousands of tons of structural steelwork for a 500-meter-long jetty built into the Bristol Channel. Ovivo UK Limited awarded a £27 million GBP contract to design and supply a cooling water intake screening system, reportedly the world's largest, to be used for cooling the steam cycle and EPR technology at Hinkley Point C. Berry and Escott Engineering, a specialist engineering and steel fabrication firm, provided support for HPC. Construction of Hinkley Point C Nuclear Power Plant officially commenced on March 31, 2017. A diverse array of critics has excoriated the HPC Nuclear Power Project on economic, environmental, technical, political, and security grounds. In a report on HPC released in June 2017, the National Audit Office (NAO) found that the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s deal for HPC had "locked consumers into a risky and expensive project with uncertain strategic and economic benefits." The NAO criticized the decision-making amidst the economic argument for HPC, which it found "marginal and subject to significant uncertainty" and took issue with the Department for not sufficiently considering the costs and risks of the deal for British consumers, only accounting until 2030, with future top-up payments assessed under the HPC CfD at £30 billion GBP in 2015-2016 prices, discounted to 2015. This report fueled further criticism for the project from British non-governmental organizations, such as No2NuclearPower. The financial deal for HPC — specifically, its Contract for Difference (CfD), which has been described as a de facto "regressive tax" penalizing nearly all British taxpayers — has been attacked for being heavily lopsided towards EDF, especially amidst the falling cost of energy due to growth in renewables. The perception, shared by both EDF and British officials, that Hinkley was effectively financing "the renaissance of nuclear in France” saddled onto these grievances. In September 2016, Scientists for Global Responsibility, a British non-governmental organization, wrote an open letter to then-Prime Minister Theresa May signed by 750 scientists, engineers and other figures calling on the British Government to cease its support for Hinkley Point C, arguing that EPR technology was unproven, an especially difficult nuclear technology, and more expensive than alternatives, that EDF's financial straits were too dire to deliver the project, that other options such as energy conservation and renewable energy were more deserving of attention than nuclear power, that claims that HPC was necessary as a baseload plant were exaggerated, and that nuclear power was still a security and environmental liability. Other critics of the project noted the conflict of interests and improper advocacy involving industry figures, the British Government, CGN, and EDF. The Office for Nuclear Development (OND) within the UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change was accused of failing to be impartial and acting as a “promoter of nuclear power”. Its chair, Tim Stone, was a known advocate for nuclear energy and had worked for KPMG while working for the British Government, KPMG having been hired by CGN and having received £4,363,767 GBP from the UK Government for providing advice on Hinkley. Financial group Rothschild, which had CGN as one of its clients, also had lobbied OND extensively. Financial advisory firm Lazard, which received £2.6 million GBP from the UK's Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) for providing advice on Hinkley, was also an advisor to EDF and had considerable prior cooperation with Chinese state-owned entities, including CDB. Within the UK Parliament's All-Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs), the China APPG, the Nuclear Energy APPG, and the Energy Studies APPG received sponsorship from EDF, and CGN financed an approximately £52,000 GBP visit to the Taishan Nuclear Power Plant in China for the members of the Nuclear Energy APPG. For CGN's financing of this visit, see Record ID#90467. Environmental concerns were at the forefront of criticism of the HPC Nuclear Power Plant Project. For instance, the Hinkley Point C Stakeholder Reference Group, warned in March 2021 that HPC could suck in and kill 182 million fish a year (37 tons) from the Severn Estuary once operational as it used the water as cooling water to cool the nuclear reactor. Severn Estuary is considered a unique ecosystem where the River Severn, Britain's longest river, and the River Wye, its fourth largest, meet together at the Irish Sea, and acts a key migratory route for fish species such as salmon, trout, twaite shad and the critically endangered European Eel Anguilla anguilla. At the same time, EDF was petitioning to modify the existing development consent order (DCO), which required an acoustic fish deterrent, to be removed, which EDF disputed the efficacy of and believed would pose a risk to divers. Other issues include those by the British non-government organization Stop Hinkley Campaign, which criticized EDF for planning to dump sediments in the Bristol Channel's Cardiff Grounds and in a disposal site off Portishead in Somerset that were supposedly “not radioactive under law”, but in reality, contained human-made radionuclides such as plutonium, tritium, and cesium-137, discharged by Hinkley Point A and B. The disposal sites are located near environmentally sensitive areas, and 10,000 people signed a petition against the proposed dumping, leading to a debate in the Welsh Parliament in October 2020, and the North Somerset Council and Portishead Town Council collaborated to oppose EDF's plans, calling for a public inquiry and for EDF's dumpling license application to go through the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and called for a public inquiry to be set up. Hinkley Point C was an issue during the 2017 French presidential election between front-runner and eventual winner Emmanuel Macron and right-wing populist and National Front Marine Le Pen. The National Front opposed the project because of a belief that it would divert resources from French state-owned EDF abroad when EDF required more spending to support the French nuclear industry domestically; in 2017, EDF was preparing for €55 billion EUR (£46.9 billion GBP) in costs to extend its reactors' life to 2025 and another €54 billion EUR to decommission 58 nuclear reactors. The considerable rises in the costs of the plant and delays in the start of construction since the first consultations on the project in 2008 had posed a problem with EDF, alongside EDF's own financial problems. EDF brought on CGN in 2015 to address these concerns, in part, although EDF's chief financial officer quit because he believed the project was unaffordable, even with CGN onboard. It was this background that influenced the National Front's opinions in 2017; Le Pen's energy advisor Philippe Murer stated that in an interview that while a National Front government would abide by contracted commitments to build the plant, ‘if clauses in the contract allow an exit from this project, we will study them [to find an exit].’ Macron (who was France's finance minister when Hinkley was agreed to), on the other hand, supported the project because he believed it would support EDF once operational. Macron's victory ensured that the French Government remained in support of the project. Hinkley Point also became a point of contention in Ireland as Hinkley Point is located 150 miles from Ireland. Around the time when the European Commission approved the power station in October 2015, Irish Green Party leader Eamon Ryan alleged that the European Commission broke its competition rules by enabling large state subsidies for new nuclear plants, and that the Government of Ireland was ignoring the environmental risks and financial costs of Hinkley Point C. Local activists and Greenpeace also assailed the European Commission's decision, with a legal advisor for Greenpeace calling the decision a ‘world record sell-out to the nuclear industry’ with ‘a pile of radioactive waste’ as the project's only legacy. The European Commission's decision to allow British government subsidies led to a legal challenge by the Government of Austria filed in July 2015. A group of 10 German and Austrian renewable energy companies, including Greenpeace Energy, also filed legal challenges to the decision. The European Court of Justice dismissed the Austrian challenge, finding that the British government's support for HPC did not constitute ‘state aid.’ The Green Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South West (which included Somerset) Molly Scott-Cato, called the decision ‘hugely regrettable’ and decried nuclear subsidies amidst the renewable energy opportunities available to southwest England. HPC faced more concerns in 2021, when a EPR reactor at the Taishan Nuclear Power Plant in Guangdong, China was shut down after reports of damage to the fuel rods and gas escaping. According to the French association the Commission for Independent Research and Information on Radioactivity, a whistleblower reported that a design flaw in the reactor pressure vessel could have been the cause of the Taishan issue; a nuclear expert assessed, if true, then it would indicate a base fault with the safety mechanism of the EPR design itself, necessitating redesigns and further delays for HPC. Further investigations were pending as of December 2021. According to its 2021, annual report, EDF identified Brexit, the COVID-19 pandemic, permits delays, worse-than-expected performance on construction, and global building market tensions as endangering on-time and on-budget completion. In late March 2022, EDF announced a new six-month delay (to June 2026) and cost increases (another £500 million GBP, for an expected total of ~£23 billion GBP ($30.13 billion USD)) for HPC. EDF cited the Russian invasion of Ukraine, supply chain disruptions, and inflation as factors in these delays. China’s role in the construction of HPC has also been a point of controversy. China's participation in this project developed during the so-called ‘Golden Age’, a period in the mid-2010s when Sino-UK relations were on a much warmer basis. HPC, in fact, had been described as ‘the flagship project’ of the Golden Age and a model for China's nuclear technology in the developed, Western world. This project was also described as an important part of the wider Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Even during this period of closer ties, national security concerns about China and HPC were prevalent. British intelligence and military figures voiced concerns about allowing China to hold a major share in the UK's nuclear energy industry and a key critical infrastructure asset, with fears that it would facilitate Chinese cyberattacks on the UK electric grid. The British security establishment's concerns about China's involvement in Hinkley also extended to the Sizewell C and Bradwell B nuclear power station projects. Technology theft was another point of contention, as CGN had previously been accused of attempting to obtain U.S. nuclear technology for China. When the government of Prime Minister Theresa May stepped into power in July 2016, it initiated a review of HPC. The review ended three months later and Hinkley went forward. As the 2010s went on, the United Kingdom and China's relations took a nosedive; British officials pointing to the assertiveness of China under Xi Jinping and the introduction of security law in Hong Kong, which was seen in Britain as a violation of the handover treaty, among other things. As a result, Britain adopted a more critical view of China, both abroad and at home. It was in this environment that concerns over China and Hinkley grew. Amidst the concerns about China's role in Britain's nuclear power infrastructure, a countervailing set of concerns arose regarding the implications of limiting China's role in British nuclear power. On October 21, 2015, the Government of the United Kingdom and the Chinese Government signed a civil nuclear energy cooperation agreement, in which both parties welcomed the participation of Chinese companies in the construction of the Sizewell C and Bradwell B nuclear power stations. CGN's involvement at Hinkley Point was expected to allow it to secure a role in the Sizewell C and Bradwell B projects; especially important to CGN was a successful approval of its Hualong One HPR1000 reactor for use at Bradwell by the British Government's rigorous regulators, which would facilitate the export of the reactor to other markets. At Bradwell, China would have had majority ownership over the nuclear plant. As the British Government's relations with China soured, a movement emerged to remove China from Sizewell C and Bradwell B. As of July 2021, the British Government was actively seeking a way to remove CGN from the consortium constructing Sizewell C, while pouring cold water on the Bradwell C plant. With the possible loss of its projects and the fall in profitability for HPC due to large cost overruns, experts warned that CGN might exit the United Kingdom entirely, seriously harming the implementation of HPC, although whether CGN would actually attempt this was contested by others in the nuclear industry. In 2022, the British Government acquired an option to purchase CGN's 20% equity stake in Sizewell C if the project proceeded, although this has not impacted the implementation of Hinkley C.