No doubt there are some good reasons to worry about ‘the Chinese’ part-owning Hinkley Point C, or National Grid Gas. In the interest of speeding the discussion along, here are some I have heard that I would tend to discount:

They may shut down Hinkley Point C unexpectedly: I guess they could. But I can promise you that whoever owns HPC there will be times when it shuts down unexpectedly. That’s our experience of any nuclear power plant, or any power plant come to that. There will be an effect on prices but it won’t black us (at least, not on its own): the system is designed to cope with the loss of the largest generator. The fact that HPC is bigger than Sizewell B (currently the biggest plant on the system) puts the cost of that insurance up, but you can’t blame China for that.

They want to steal nuclear secrets about the HPC design: maybe, but they will find it much easier to get those secrets from the similar plant under construction in China, which is being built by CGN in a joint venture with EDF. Both units are in test and are due to start up next year at a site called Taishan, and they will probably be able to get ten years of operating data from that before HPC is up and running.

They want to get into our electricity system. Too late. CKI has owned UK Power Networks, which owns and operates the electricity networks in the south east, including that in London, for years. It should be said that CKI is a Hong Kong based private infrastructure fund, not the Chinese state, but they seem to come under the same ‘the Chinese’ description when stories are written.

Incidentally, CKI already owns Wales and West Utilities and Northern Gas Networks, so if it buys a stake in National Grid Gas (and an SGN stake, also up for sale) it will have pretty much the full set in England and Wales.