Under the “guise of ameliorating Franco-Sino bilateral relations” the Chinese Government has recently intensified lobbying and “back channel negotiations” in its ramped-up attempts to obtain the technology, multiple intelligence sources have told The Klaxon.

High-level US intelligence sources told the US-based news organisation that Beijing was “engaging in political diplomacy and back-channel negotiations” in a fierce bid to arrange a visit to China by French President Emmanuel Macron in the near future. 

China was seeking to rekindle a 10 billion euro (US$11.7bn) deal between China and French Government-controlled nuclear energy giant Orano, which stalled in late 2018, partly due to serious security concerns raised behind-the-scenes by France’s national security agency, the Secretariat General for Defence and National Security (SGDSN), reported the news portal.

Incidentally, Orano is a France-based multinational which is majority owned by the French Government.

Senior intelligence sources told The Klaxon Beijing was currently “lobbying hard”, hoping to secure in the coming days a future visit by Macron. 

“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,” a senior intelligence source told The Klaxon.

France and China have been in discussions regarding the deal between China National Nuclear Corporation and Orano since it was first proposed over a decade ago.

The project was discussed by Macron on a visit to China in January 2018, with his Prime Minister, Philipe, signing the “preparatory work” agreement five months later.

Intelligence sources told The Klaxon that if France were to sign the deal it would give Beijing powerful, state-of-the-art technology that it could use as a lure to financially entrap smaller and poorer countries seeking nuclear power.