CHINESE INTEREST AND INVESTMENTS
- In addition to the overarching threat to UK Industry from China's attempts to gain economically from the UK, and to ensure that the UK becomes increasingly reliant on China, as part of this Inquiry we also considered the specific case of the Civil Nuclear and Energy sectors in terms of the UK's Critical National Infrastructure (CNI).
Critical National Infrastructure
The Government defines Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) as:
Those critical elements of infrastructure (namely assets, facilities, systems, networks or processes and the essential workers that operate and facilitate them), the loss or compromise of which could result in:
- major detrimental impact on the availability, integrity or delivery, of essential services whose integrity, if compromised, could result in significant loss of life or casualties—taking into account significant economic and social impacts; and/or
- significant impact on national security, national defence, or the functioning of the state.[1]
There are 13 areas of CNI in the UK, including the separately designated 'Civil Nuclear' and 'Energy' sectors.[2]
- The importance of these parts of the UK's CNI is clear: energy is essential—described by one witness as the "über CNI", on the basis that "all other CNI requires an energy source".[3]
- In terms of energy sources, the Government announced in the 2021 Integrated Review that its "aim is to become the world's leading centre for green technology, finance and wind energy".[4] The Government has also set a target of 'net zero' for carbon emissions by 2050, and will scale up renewable energy while scaling down coal and gas power stations. Nevertheless, successive Governments have backed nuclear power as a long-term source of
- ↑ Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI) website.
- ↑ The remaining 11 sectors are: Chemicals, Defence, Emergency Services, Finance, Food, Government, Health, Space, Telecommunications, Transport and Water.
- ↑ Oral evidence—GCHQ, *** October 2020.
- ↑ Global Britain in a Competitive Age: the Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy (the 'Integrated Review') was published on 16 March 2021 and sets out the Government's vision of the UK's role in the world. It contains a number of actions which the Government commits to taking in support of that view. A refresh of the initial Integrated Review was later published on 13 March 2023 (after evidence-taking for this Inquiry had concluded).
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