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Former Conservative leader Ian Duncan Smith said Britain should learn from China’s history and urgently review its nuclear contracts with the country. Mr Duncan Smith claimed Chinese dominance is now a pressing threat to the free world and the UK should be very cautious.

He told Sky News: “If you think you can turn a blind eye to a country’s appalling treatment of both the people in its own home territory and its aggression abroad then you buy what we learnt years ago – a problem which is bigger and bigger as the years go by.

“We learnt this back in the 1930s, we have to think again now we are facing a very similar problem.”

China started to be involved in Britain’s nuclear sector during David Cameron’s time as Prime Minister.

Professor Anthony Gees, an expert in national security and intelligence, told Sky News how China openly wants to be the most powerful economic and military power in the world.

He claimed that Britain is walking a dangerous path with its involvement.

Professor Gees said: “Nuclear energy is built to provide 25 percent of our energy requirements for the decades to come, so 25 percent is a lot of energy and that needs to be controlled entirely by British scientists, British technology, British software.

“And the British government needs to be sure that no foreign power – in this case China – has the ability to turn the thing off, to put it crudely.

“I think people just need to ask themselves a somewhat simplistic question, but it makes the point.

“Would the Chinese let Britain build a nuclear power station in China?”

China General Nuclear UK (CGN UK) is state-owned and a stakeholder in the Hinkley Point C power station (HPC) in Somerset and Sizewell C in Suffolk.

HPC is a project to construct a 3,200 MWe nuclear power station.

Both power station projects are in partnership with the French company EDF.

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CGN UK has the majority stake at 66.5 percent as EDF plays a minority role.

Dr Yu Jie, senior research fellow on China at Chatham House, warned the UK should be very careful about sending out mixed messages amid Brexit and the coronavirus crisis.

She told Sky News: “I think at the moment there seems to be a lot of inconsistency happening with the UK government.

“On the one hand we hear rhetoric about a so-called ‘golden era’ welcoming the Chinese investment whilst on the other hand you have Tory backbenchers and the China Research Group scrutinising the Chinese investment.

“I think there’s kind of mixed messages making the Chinese very confused about exactly who’s representing the United Kingdom.”

CGN said in a statement it had already invested more than £3.8billion into the UK economy and had created many thousands of jobs.

It also said it was proud to support the UK economy and the government’s goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2050.

A spokesman from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy told Sky News: “Nuclear power has an important role to play in the UK’s low-carbon energy future.

“All nuclear projects in the UK are conducted under robust and independent regulation to ensure that the UK’s interests are protected.”

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