{"id":1774400,"date":"2022-12-14T06:01:26","date_gmt":"2022-12-14T11:01:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1774400"},"modified":"2022-12-14T06:03:53","modified_gmt":"2022-12-14T11:03:53","slug":"uk-government-intervenes-in-chinese-takeover-of-shell-company-over-risks-to-national-grid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/uk-government-intervenes-in-chinese-takeover-of-shell-company-over-risks-to-national-grid\/","title":{"rendered":"UK Government Intervenes in Chinese Takeover of Shell Company Over Risks to National Grid"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fuk-government-intervenes-in-chinese-takeover-of-shell-company-over-risks-to-national-grid%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1774400&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-uk\">UK<\/a> has imposed restrictions on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-chinese\">Chinese<\/a> takeover of a shell company worth \u00a31, saying the move mitigates national security risks.<\/p>\n<p>In a\u00a0notice of final order (<a href=\"https:\/\/assets.publishing.service.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/attachment_data\/file\/1122010\/XRE_Alpha_-_Final_Order.pdf\">pdf<\/a>) published on Dec. 6, the Department for Business, Energy &#038; Industrial Strategy (BEIS) said Business Secretary Grant Shapps considers the\u00a0takeover of\u00a0XRE Alpha Limited by\u00a0China Power International Holding Limited a risk in relation to the security of an important UK electricity asset and the security of services provided to the UK National Grid.<\/p>\n<p>China Power International Holding Limited, a wholly owned\u00a0subsidiary of China\u2019s state-owned State Power Investment Corporation, will acquire 90 percent shareholding in XRE Project Alpha Limited, the Hong Kong-based parent company of XRE Alpha Limited, the notice said.<\/p>\n<p>Shapps allowed the\u00a0acquisition, but imposed restrictions on what information can be shared and on the\u00a0management of power offtake and ancillary service provision to National Grid, saying\u00a0the restrictions are \u201cnecessary and proportionate to mitigate the risk to national security.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4919095\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/electricity-national-grid-uk-1200x720-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy size-large wp-image-4919095\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/themes\/eet\/images\/white.png\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/electricity-national-grid-uk-1200x720-1.jpg\" alt=\"Epoch Times Photo\" width=\"640\" height=\"384\"   style=\"display:none\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-4919095\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/electricity-national-grid-uk-1200x720-1.jpg\" alt=\"Epoch Times Photo\" width=\"640\" height=\"384\" \/><\/noscript><\/figcaption><\/a> A view of electricity pylons behind houses in Lydd, Kent, England, on Sept. 30, 2022. (Gareth Fuller\/PA Media)<\/figure>\n<p>Since the UK\u2019s\u00a0National Security and Investment Act came into effect, the UK has issued a dozen such notices, with seven of them targeting Chinese takeovers.<\/p>\n<p>Previous targets of takeovers included well-known entities such as\u00a0Newport Wafer Fab,\u00a0the UK\u2019s largest microchip company, but little is known about\u00a0XRE Alpha Limited and its Chinese owner.<\/p>\n<p>According to information registered with\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk\/company\/13120244\">Companies House<\/a>, XRE\u00a0Alpha Limited was registered last year with the value of \u00a31 and remained dormant since.<\/p>\n<p>Its director Xing Jin, a 48-year-old Chinese national, is also the director of five other active companies, all but one worth \u00a31.<\/p>\n<p>Xrenewable Ltd, the only company which is trading, provides data management services for renewable energy assets worldwide. The company website shows its projects included a collaboration with\u00a0the University College London in relation to\u00a0shared electrical bike charging piles.<\/p>\n<p>A LinkedIn page for the company shows 21 employees, with 17 of them residing in China. According to data platform\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/pomanda.com\/company\/11955142\/xrenewable-ltd\">Pomanda<\/a>, the company has a turnover of \u00a31.3 million.<\/p>\n<p>In an email to The Epoch Times, Elexon, a company that manages Britain\u2019s electricity trading rules, said that Xrenewable Ltd had acceded to\u00a0the Balancing and Settlement Code (BSC)\u2014the first step to become a non-physical trader of electricity in the UK\u2014on June 1 last year, but had withdrawn from the BSC on Feb. 28 this year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cElexon does not have any contractual relations with Xrenewable Limited and the company does not do any work for us,\u201d the statement reads.<\/p>\n<p>The government does not usually comment on individual cases, and in an email to The Epoch Times a spokesperson for BEIS said, \u201cThe government is required to publish a Final Order Notice when imposing remedies on a particular acquisition and has done so.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Xing Jin and\u00a0China Power International Holding Limited didn\u2019t respond to\u00a0The Epoch Times\u2019 request for comment.<\/p>\n<h2>Chinese Investors Barred From Dual-Use Tech<\/h2>\n<p>The relationship between the UK and the Chinese regime has become increasingly strained following Beijing\u2019s upending of democracy and the rule of law in Hong Kong, its reciprocal sanctioning of British politicians who are vocal critics of its human rights abuses in\u00a0Xinjiang, and the beating of a Hong Kong protester by Chinese diplomats in Manchester.<\/p>\n<p>Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said in a major foreign policy speech on Nov. 28 that the so-called \u201cgolden era\u201d of the Sino\u2013British relationship is over, and that the UK will strengthen its resilience and economic security.<\/p>\n<p>The intervention in the acquisition of XRE Alpha Limited is the seventh time the UK government has stepped in\u00a0using the\u00a0National Security and Investment Act to block or restrict Chinese acquisitions or takeovers involving dual-use technologies or the UK\u2019s critical assets.<\/p>\n<p>On July 20, then-Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng issued an order under the new law\u00a0to block Beijing Infinite Vision Technology Co. from buying vision-sensing technology from the University of Manchester.<\/p>\n<p>In an\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/uk-blocks-takeover-of-tech-company-pulsic-by-hong-kong-based-firm-over-security-fears_4672887.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Aug. 17 order<\/a>, Kwarteng blocked the acquisition of Bristol-based electronic design automation company Pulsic by Super Orange HK Holding, which is\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rfa.org\/cantonese\/news\/htm\/hk-acquisition-08192022085337.html\">reportedly controlled<\/a> by\u00a0Shanghai UniVista Industrial Software Group.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4785873\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/GettyImages-1243723275-1200x800-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy size-large wp-image-4785873\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/themes\/eet\/images\/white.png\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/GettyImages-1243723275-1200x800-1.jpg\" alt=\"Kwasi Kwarteng\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-4785873\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/GettyImages-1243723275-1200x800-1.jpg\" alt=\"Kwasi Kwarteng\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" \/><\/noscript><\/figcaption><\/a> Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng attends an In Conversation with the Institute of Economics Affairs and TaxPayers\u2019 Alliance on the third day of the Conservative Party conference at Birmingham ICC, in Birmingham, England, on Oct. 4, 2022. (Ian Forsyth\/Getty Images)<\/figure>\n<p>On Sept. 14,\u00a0then-Business\u00a0Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg imposed restrictions on the acquisition of\u00a0the Stonehill project, an energy storage project in Wiltshire, by Beijing-controlled\u00a0Stonehill Energy Storage Ltd. The restrictions are similar to the ones imposed on the acquisition of\u00a0XRE Alpha Limited.<\/p>\n<p>On Sept. 29, Rees-Mogg blocked\u00a0Redrock Investment Ltd., a subsidiary of China\u2019s state-owned State Development and Investment Corp.,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/chinese-firm-blocked-from-accessing-key-information-about-uks-power-grid_4770918.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">from accessing sensitive information<\/a>\u00a0about Britain\u2019s power grid.<\/p>\n<p>On Oct. 10, he imposed restrictions including information sharing on the acquisition of Ligeance Aerospace Technology Co. Ltd by\u00a0Sichuan Development Holding Co., Ltd, which involves two UK-based subsidiaries, Gardner Aerospace Holdings Limited and\u00a0Gardner Group Limited.<\/p>\n<p>Following the acquisition of\u00a0Newport Wafer Fab by Chinese-owned Dutch company\u00a0Nexperia, Shapps on\u00a0Nov. 16 ordered the newly-named Nexperia Newport Limited to sell most of its shares, ruling the takeover had\u00a0breached national security laws.<\/p>\n<p>China General Nuclear was previously involved in the UK\u2019s Sizewell C nuclear project. The UK government didn\u2019t issue a notice of final order in relation to the investment, but gave the green light for the\u00a0\u00a320 billion project in November. Shapps said the Chinese state-owned company had been bought out of the deal.<\/p>\n<div class=\"author_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"one_author_block round\">\n<div class=\"top_row\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/author-lily-zhou\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/WEB_LilyZhou.jpg\" alt=\"Lily Zhou\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Follow<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Lily Zhou is an Irish-based reporter focusing on UK news. Lily first joined the Chinese edition of The Epoch Times before turning her focus on the UK in 2020. Contact Lily at lily.zhou@epochtimes.com\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The UK has imposed restrictions on the Chinese takeover of a shell company worth \u00a31, saying the move mitigates national security risks.In a\u00a0notice of final order (pdf) published on Dec.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1774403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[5458,4117,5425,5045,8766,8767,4107,3819,7993,7018],"class_list":["post-1774400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report","tag-bongino","tag-chinese","tag-company","tag-government","tag-grid","tag-intervenes","tag-national","tag-report","tag-risks","tag-takeover"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1774400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1774400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1774400\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1774403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1774400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1774400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1774400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}