China has been expanding a lobbying campaign aimed at important French politicians in an attempt to acquire billions of dollars worth of French nuclear technology. Critics of the effort say that Beijing will use such technology to expand its global influence and undermine global security with its "debt-trap diplomacy". Analysts say that China is working hard on getting a visit from the French President.
China is trying to restart negotiations for a twelve-billion dollar deal between China and the nuclear energy giant Orano which is controlled by the French Government. The negotiations stalled in late 2018 partly due to serious security concerns raised by the French national security agency, Secretariat General for Defense and National Security (SGDSN).
The Chinese government was trying to exploit the recent change in French Prime Ministers. Jean Castex replaced Edouard Philipe as the French Prime Minister on July 3rd of 2018. The China National Nuclear Corporation is a state-owned organization which oversees all of China’s military and civilian nuclear program. They had been seeking French nuclear technology for more than ten years.
When Philipe visited China in 2018, he signed a preliminary deal between Orano and the China National Nuclear Corporation. However, that deal was only for “preparatory work” and it expired at the end of 2018. A senior intelligence source said “With the change in the French leadership, the Chinese are currently lobbying hard to arrange a visit of Macron to China....so that negotiations on restoration of the nuclear project could begin among other agreements that could be reached between the two countries.”
Beijing hopes that the departure of Philipe who was seen to be strongly connected to China would improve public relations with France and help it to get the deal which would allow it to access the “sensitive” French nuclear technology. China has a long running nuclear program and a few hundred nuclear warheads. What it is seeking from France is state-of-the-art nuclear power plant technology which is used for power generation.
French and U.S. intelligence agencies are worried that Beijing would exploit such technology by using it as a tool for its expansionistic ‘debt-trap diplomacy’ operations. One senior intelligence source said that “The project has been stuck because of serious concerns expressed by the Secretariat General for Defense and National Security. The agency raised concerns mainly on China's possible sharing of the sensitive technology to countries in order to gain future nuclear energy projects using its tactics of using predatory loans and debt trap to nations seeking nuclear power.”
France and China have been negotiating the deal between China National Nuclear Corporation and Orano for more than ten years. The project was discussed by Macro when he visited China in January of 2018. His Prime Minister, Philipe, signed the “preparatory work” agreements five months after the Macro visit.
Intelligence analysts suggest that if France signed the deal, it would give China powerful state-of-the-art technology that it could use as a lure to financially entrap smaller and poor countries seeks nuclear power.