The U.K. should greenlight a deal to build a nuclear plant using Chinese investment because it will be “dependent on China’s goodwill” after Brexit, Peter Mandelson, the former European commissioner for trade, said in a BBC Radio interview Wednesday.
“We’ll want to deepen our economic ties with China,” Mandelson said. “I don’t think that making any move in the meantime that makes that more difficult, and difficult enough it is going to be, is in Britain’s interest.”
At the end of July, British Prime Minister Theresa May announced she would delay by two months her decision on whether to approve the Hinkley Point C nuclear power project, which is being built by French state-controlled EDF but funded in part by China.
Hinkley opponents argue Chinese investment could pose a national security concern. Mandelson rejected this.
“It would be commercially, globally suicidal for China if they were to invest on the one hand and then try to mess around with other countries’ security the next,” Mandelson said, adding “Nobody would trust Chinese investment again, nobody would want to do business with China again.”
“To stretch this out beyond the end of September would be a mistake. We have an enormous amount to play for in the post-Brexit world.”