China-UK Relations

Last week, the UK Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Kwasi Kwarteng, issued an order that prevents the acquisition of a UK electronic design firm by a Hong Kong company, on the basis that it "is necessary and proportionate to mitigate the risk to national security."

An acquisition of a U.S./UK pharmaceutical company by a company with China ties is being reviewed by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) and its UK counterpart.

Last week, the UK Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy published a notice of final order that, based on national security concerns, blocked a Chinese company from licensing vision sensing technology from a UK university.

Last week, the UK Parliament had separate discussions of two big issues related to China trade, forced labor and security, in which members of Parliament raised concerns and called for action.

Last week, the UK government took steps to remove a Chinese company from the financing of a proposed nuclear power plant.

In the UK House of Lords last week, a question was raised regarding the acquisition of the Newport Wafer Fab, a semiconductor factory in Wales, by the Chinese-owned technology company Nexperia. In response, the UK government has made clear that a national security review of the transaction is underway.

Last week, Politico reported that the UK government was taking tentative steps to restore a forum to talk about trade and investment with China, but there was immediate pushback from some of the China hawks within the Conservative Party.