How to deal with China’s interest in sensitive industries

As China actively seeks to expand overseas investment, its interest in critical infrastructure, defined as infrastructure closely related to sovereignty and national security, has become a sensitive issue to host country governments particularly in the West. How have host countries received the Chinese companies, and what are the implications for national and international security?

A new DIIS Policy Brief authored by Yang Jiang, Aki Tonami and Adam Moe Fejerskov summarises the key findings of a comprehensive study that examines the interactions between China and host countries in the nuclear power and telecommunication industries. The study on nuclear power is based on examples in the UK, Greenland, Pakistan, the Middle East and Ukraine, and the study on telecommunication is based on examples from the Scandinavian countries including Denmark, US, UK, and selected African countries. Based on those examples, the Policy Brief discusses the implications for nuclear security and safety as well as for information security, and comes up with policy recommendations to host countries.