Only Peter Mandleson types win with China deal

ACCORDING to intelligence experts, Russian and Chinese cyber warriors pose a real and present threat to global security.

The West is on ceaseless alert against spyware planted in sensitive military and civilian infrastructure.

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There is no way we would let Kremlin tyrant Vlad Putin build a nuclear power station on British soil.

So why did we hand Beijing the key to Hinkley Point?

Despite special pleading from reptilian Peter Mandelson, that deal is now almost certainly dead.

It is only since new PM Theresa May blew the whistle that the risks have come to light.

Forget about the £18billion cost of construction — in partnership with French firm EDF — which would surely double, along with household energy bills.

Hinkley Point is only the start of Chinese involvement in UK nuclear power, with a second plant scheduled in Essex which they alone would build.

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Computer experts fear Chinese-designed software would be wide open to bugs planted during routine maintenance and set to crash at any time in the future.

At times of global tension between China and the West — not unlikely over the lifetime of a power plant — this would leave Britain dangerously exposed to blackmail by Beijing.

Astonishingly, this was all known to then Chancellor George Osborne as he pitched for Chinese investment in the past two years.

In a message now mysteriously cut from its website, MI5 warned: “The intelligence services of Russia, China and other countries continue to work against UK interests at home and abroad.”

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Security expert Prof Anthony Glees thinks MI5 came under pressure to drop the statement before Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit last year.

“It was done at a time when Mr Osborne was putting economic policy before national security, and in my view that exhibited ridiculous naivety,” he told The Times.

“We should assume China will seek to gather intelligence wherever it can.

“They are brilliant at this and have hacked their way around the world.”

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Chinese agencies are under constant watch by the “Five Eyes” intelligence network — America, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

It is no coincidence that three of these English-speaking nations have suddenly taken a stand against the totalitarian Communist state.

Britain froze Hinkley Point. Australia banned a Chinese takeaway of its electricity industry. America put a top engineer at China General Nuclear Power — the state-owned giant involved in the UK deal — on trial for spying.

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It was at this point that twice-sacked Cabinet minister and “filthy rich” ex-EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson slithered out of the shadows.

In remarks apparently dictated directly from Beijing he claimed it would be “suicidal” for China to tamper with our energy supplies.

“China would have far too much to lose if it were to start compromising other countries’ national security,” he hissed on the BBC Today programme.

Like a scripted echo, the state-controlled Xinhua news agency warned it was “ridiculous to suggest Chinese enterprises would commit suicide on the world stage by threatening to deny the Australian and British public electricity”.

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Is creepy Mandelson employed as Communist China’s official mouthpiece? He doesn’t need paying.

Mandy has made sure since leaving office that his bread is buttered lavishly on both sides.

He will speak for any murderous dictatorship — from Kazakhstan’s President Nazarbayev to Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe — even where it poses a threat to British and Western interests.

Having lost face, China might now retaliate by cutting us out of deals involving its multi-trillion dollar wealth.

That should not scare us. Our trade with China is not a huge factor in our economy and any deals were always going to be on their terms.

We cannot forget the way Beijing murders and tortures its own people.

It is hypocritical to preach human rights in the democratic West while ignoring their rampant abuse in Russia and China.

A fruitful relationship with the new Chinese superpower may be desirable.

But built on trust and the rule of law — and not at any price.