Greene King, Three UK, Heathrow Airport, the Walkie Talkie constructing. They are all quintessentially British, having been born in Britain, bought to Britons, and utilized by Britons.
Yet, all of them have one factor in widespread: they don't seem to be owned by Britain.
It could come as a shock however every is owned by Chinese corporations.
There are extra, too. Many of essentially the most cherished and well-known landmarks, companies, operations and providers are owned by Chinese oligarchs and arms of the Chinese state.
It signifies that when these companies pay dividends to their traders, tens of tens of millions of kilos both stream to China or, in some instances, on to Chinese President Xi Jinping's authoritarian regime.
Such is the depth of China's pursuits within the UK {that a} recent report by Parliament’s intelligence and safety committee discovered that the communist state's ambition to grow to be an financial superpower presents the “greatest risk” to the UK.
As of 2021, greater than 200 British property had been snapped up by Chinese and Hong-Kong based mostly authorities businesses, corporations and traders, price greater than a mixed £135billion.
This determine has solely grown, particularly with the fast rise of the state-owned China Investment Corporation (CIC), Beijing's sovereign wealth fund.
An up to date list compiled by the Sunday Times earlier this 12 months put UK property held by the Chinese state at £45billion.
Britons will not have heard of a lot of them, however others are surprisingly near dwelling. They embody:
Many of the companies listed have grow to be very important points of UK logistical life.
Logicor is all over the place in Britain. Amazon leases Logicor buildings close to Bristol, the Surrey city of Weybridge and Bardon in Leicestershire, and the distribution big additionally has premises in main cities like Birmingham, Manchester, Nottingham and Sheffield.
Logicor alone has paid out £222million in dividends to Beijing. Other corporations have related paid out tens of millions to China, like Thames Water.
Despite the utility firm coming near the brink final month, with a doable injection of taxpayer cash floated as a decision, Thames Water paid out £8.7million to the CIC up to now 5 years.
Neptune, based mostly in Aberdeen, paid the CIC £294million in dividends in the identical time interval, whereas it raked in virtually £163 million from its stake in Heathrow Airport between 2017 and 2020.
In the latest report, Parliament’s intelligence and safety committee mentioned China’s state intelligence equipment was “targeting” Britain and its pursuits “prolifically and aggressively”, within the technique of looking for to manage key industrial and civil nuclear power property.
The report mentioned: “China’s size, ambition and capability have enabled it to successfully penetrate every sector of the UK’s economy.
"The UK is now playing catch-up and the whole of Government has its work cut out to understand and counter the threat from China.
"It is clear that China has taken advantage of the policy of successive British governments to boost economic ties between the UK and China, which has enabled it to advance its commercial, science and technology and industrial goals in order to gain a strategic advantage.
"China has been buying up and seeking to control or influence the UK’s industry and energy sectors and – until the Covid-19 pandemic – Chinese money was readily accepted by Government with few questions asked.
“The Government needs to ensure that it has its house in order such that security concerns are not constantly trumped by economic interests.”
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