China's investment spree in UK gave it access to military-grade technology, BBC told

11 minutes ago Share Save Celia Hatton BBC Panorama Share Save

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China has financed tens of billions of pounds' worth of investment in UK businesses and projects this century, some of which gave it access to military-grade technology, BBC Panorama has learned. The spending spree - worth £45bn ($59bn) at 2023 prices - was at its height following a 2015 Chinese state directive, aimed at making the country a global leader in high-tech industries. The UK has been the top destination among G7 nations for these investments, relative to the size of its population and economy, according to US-based research group AidData. Panorama has investigated how this led to cutting-edge technology and skills being transferred to China. The UK was "far too free in allowing access to strategically important industries", according to a former head of GCHQ.

The BBC was given exclusive early access to data collected by AidData, a research group at William & Mary, a university in the US state of Virginia. A leading specialist in tracking how governments spend money overseas, AidData receives funding from governments and charitable foundations around the world. Some government-backed Chinese investments were purely commercial but others were in line with Beijing's strategic objectives, according to Dr Brad Parks, AidData's executive director.

These objectives were laid out by China's communist leaders in a strategic plan 10 years ago, called "Made In China 2025". It set ambitious targets for the country to become the industry leader in 10 high-tech sectors, including aerospace, electric vehicles and robotics. This was a far-sighted strategy, according to Prof Keyu Jin of Hong Kong University of Science and Technology: "It's the longer-term strategic thinking that China has always had, and I'd argue that many other countries also should have." With access to AidData's research, the BBC has investigated how the purchase of some UK companies has led to technology with military potential to be transferred to China. Imagination Technologies, a Hertfordshire-based firm, was one of the companies Panorama looked at. It specialises in semiconductor design - in other words, designing the tiny electronic circuits inside chips that power devices such as computers and smartphones.

Imagination's UK base in Hertfordshire

In 2017, Imagination had recently lost its most important client, Apple, and had seen its share price fall dramatically. It was snapped up for £550m by a private equity firm, Canyon Bridge, based at that time in the US state of California. The Canyon Bridge fund that bought Imagination had one investor - Yitai Capital, whose largest stakeholder is China Reform. This organisation reports to the State Council, the body responsible for carrying out party policies and laws. Two months before Canyon Bridge bought Imagination in the UK, it had tried to buy a semiconductor company in the US. However, that purchase had been blocked by the US's investment-screening laws. The value of Imagination lay in its intellectual property - the expertise of its engineers, amassed over decades. A potential buyer would be buying into this expertise. What is more, the algorithms behind its technology, although developed for other products, could be put to military use in missiles and drones. In his first interview since leaving Imagination, the company's former CEO, Ron Black, says the UK government vetted the deal, and he was told "unequivocally" by Canyon Bridge that China Reform would be a passive investor, only interested in making money.

Former Imagination CEO Ron Black became worried about the motives of the company's Chinese investors

However, in 2019, Mr Black says he was summoned to a meeting in Beijing, where he was asked to work directly for China Reform, and oversee the wholesale transfer of Imagination's technology and expertise to China. "I think [the China Reform representative] said specifically 'from the heads of the British engineers to the Chinese engineers, then lay off the British engineers and you'll make a lot of money'," says Mr Black. He refused, but he says that several months later, China Reform tried to install four new directors "with no understanding of semiconductors" directly onto the board of Imagination Technologies. "The only attributes they appeared to have was a relationship with China Reform," he adds. Convinced that Imagination's technology had the capacity to be used for military purposes, Mr Black began reaching out to contacts in the UK government. He says he was given a sympathetic hearing, but was told this was a private industry matter, and there was not much anyone could do. Fearful about the possible transfer of military-grade technology, Mr Black resigned. At that point, he says, the UK government started to take an interest, and China Reform halted its attempt to install new directors. Mr Black withdrew his resignation but was fired three days later. He was later found by an employment tribunal to have been unfairly dismissed. After he left the company, Imagination's homegrown technology was transferred to China.

According to Imagination, its technology is not used in military products. It told Panorama: "Imagination has always complied with applicable export and trade compliance laws in respect of its commercial licensing of semiconductor IP technology and related transactions." Canyon Bridge told Panorama "the Imagination transaction was sourced and led exclusively by Canyon Bridge and its advisers". Panorama contacted China Reform, but it has not commented on Mr Black's allegations. The Chinese Embassy says its government "has always required Chinese enterprises operating overseas to strictly comply with local laws and regulations" and that these enterprises "also contribute actively to local economic growth, social development and job creation - efforts that have been widely welcomed by many countries".

Getty Images 2015: Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Prime Minister David Cameron share a pint of beer during Xi's state visit to the UK

In 2017, the UK had fewer powers to stop the sale of a company such as Imagination to Chinese owners. Two years earlier, China's leader, Xi Jinping, had been welcomed on a state visit, with David Cameron's Conservative government hailing the start of a "golden era" in China-UK relations. "We thought China was basically a very friendly power and there was lots of money to be made," says Sir Jeremy Hunt. In 2015 he was health secretary, and later held other government posts, including chancellor of the exchequer and foreign secretary. "But under the surface, we were beginning to sense a much more assertive China."

The challenge of how to trade with China, while keeping the UK safe, remains an unresolved issue. "This is the trillion-dollar question," says Sir Jeremy Fleming, a former head of GCHQ. The UK has benefited from a trading relationship with China, and from its investment, over the past couple of decades, he says. On the other hand, he adds, the UK has sometimes forgotten that this investment could be used against its own interests. "My personal view," he says, "is that we have been far too free in allowing access to strategically important industries in science and technology." Sir Jeremy contrasts the UK's approach with the control exerted by the Chinese: "They have been very strategic and careful not to allow Western companies to invest or to get involved in key bits of their industry which are strategically important."

Former GCHQ boss Sir Jeremy Fleming: How to balance trade and security objectives is a "trillion-dollar question"

Europe as a whole and some US businesses were naive about China in 2017-18, according to John Bolton, former US national security advisor during the first Trump administration. "There was a reluctance to think we were slipping back into some kind of Cold War," he says. Mr Bolton has recently been indicted in the US on several charges pertaining to the alleged mishandling of classified information. He maintains his innocence. Some experts argue that Beijing did nothing wrong, and that the UK was just short-sighted. China is effectively a one-party state and some argue its autocratic system succeeds because of its long-term strategic planning. The results, seen from China's perspective, have been "nothing short of remarkable", says Prof Keyu Jin. "One of the key advantages of China's political system is the ability to set multi-decade-long goals," she says. "And you do the planning. You do the investment. You set the strategy. You influence the financing. It's not a five-year thing."

Prof Keyu Jin thinks that the results of China's long-term strategic planning have been "remarkable"

In this century, China has been the world's largest overseas lender, to the tune of £1.6tn ($2.1tn) at 2023 prices, AidData's research has revealed. The high point for Chinese overseas investment was during 2016 and 2017, according to Dr Parks. After this point, he says, many countries started strengthening screening mechanisms on national security grounds. The US, Germany and Italy tightened vetting on foreign investment by 2018. The UK followed suit in 2022. Sir Jeremy Fleming is cautiously optimistic that lessons have been learned. "We have a much stronger regime in place," he says. "But would I say the process is watertight? Absolutely not." In 2024, a Labour government was elected, but it faced the same issue as its Conservative predecessor - namely, that the UK needed economic growth and China could help. "One big problem in Europe, including the UK, is that there's not enough investment and funding," says Prof Keyu Jin. "China is very happy to finance some of these projects. And there are lots of areas where there's no real threat of national security." Chancellor Rachel Reeves has already been on a mission to Beijing to secure foreign investment.

Getty Images January 2025: Chancellor Rachel Reeves speaks in Beijing during a trip aimed at improving UK-China economic ties

Gangs buy haulage firms to steal lorryloads of goods

12 minutes ago Share Save William McLennan , Elizabeth Glinka and Victoria Archer, BBC Local Investigations Share Save

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Criminal gangs are buying up haulage firms to pose as truckers and steal goods by the lorryload, the BBC has learned. We found evidence that a group of haulage companies were purchased using a dead man's details. One of the haulage firms was then hired as a subcontractor by an unwitting UK transport company. A manufacturer loaded one of the subcontractor's lorries up with goods - which were then never seen again. Alison - not her real name - runs the Midlands transport firm that was tricked by the fake subcontractors, and says it is "incredible" that "a gang can go in and target a company so blatantly".

This brazen tactic is just one of the ways criminals are targeting haulage firms who deliver retail stock and other supplies all over the country, as freight theft in the UK rose to £111m last year, from £68m in 2023. Footage obtained by the BBC shows criminals raiding lorries as they make deliveries, breaking into vehicles while they wait in traffic, cutting locks and breaking into depots, and stealing whole trailers packed with goods.

Watch: Footage of goods being stolen from lorries in broad daylight

Drivers, who frequently have to stop and sleep overnight in their cabs, have told the BBC they often wake to find the curtained sides of their lorries slashed by criminals who tried to get at the cargo inside, with shipments of designer clothes, alcohol and electronics among the most common targets. "You should care because it hits your wallet," says John Redfern, a former security manager for a major supermarket. As more products get stolen, the cost of goods for the consumer will go up over time, he said. The National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) said freight crime is becoming "more sophisticated, more organised" and said police forces need to work with the industry to respond.

Some drivers told the BBC the sides of their lorries have been slashed overnight

Fraud targeting hauliers - including criminals using bogus haulage companies - is on the rise in the UK, according to the police's National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service. "Our industry is under attack," says Richard Smith, managing director of the Road Haulage Association. The industry body hears every day of businesses targeted by "highly organised crime gangs" and police have warned them of "a recent growth" in much more sophisticated methods, he says. The fraud identified by the BBC appears to follow a pattern previously seen by Europol in mainland Europe, where "legitimate transport companies on the brink of bankruptcy" are bought by organised crime groups who pick up several cargoes "and then vanish".

After Alison's firm was targeted, the officers working on her case told her police were also investigating similar crimes in other parts of the UK. Alison's haulage firm, which moves millions of pounds around the country each year, subcontracted to a smaller transport company for a job earlier this year. She says she sometimes does this when her lorries are busy or in the wrong place. "Their insurance was in place, their operators' licence was in place," she says. "It looked great." The lorry arrived at the manufacturing company, a forklift truck loaded it up with DIY products and the lorry drove off, she says. But unknown to Alison and the manufacturers, the lorry had been using fake number plates. It disappeared with the cargo worth £75,000. "The first we knew about it was the destination company rang us and said, 'where's our load gone?'" Alison says. She tried to ring the subcontractor, but the number had been disconnected.

A dead man's identity

So who had taken the goods? We followed a twisting trail to try to find out, involving a dead man's identity, a mystery Romanian woman and a £150,000 Lamborghini Urus. The company Alison hired was called Zus Transport. A month before the theft, it had been sold by its previous owners - there is no suggestion they were involved in any wrongdoing. The BBC discovered that the takeover was funded by a bank transfer from a company owned by a UK-based Romanian lorry driver named Ionut Calin, who went by his middle name Robert. We found a network of five transport companies, including Zus Transport, seemingly purchased by Mr Calin this year. But Mr Calin died in November 2024, we confirmed with Romanian officials. That was months before his bank details had been used to buy several of the companies and his name used to register three of them at Companies House.

TikTok Robert Calin's details were used to buy five transport companies

We have no reason to believe he was involved in crime, and dozens of people on social media paid tribute to him as a good man who helped others in the industry. The former owners of several of the transport companies said they had dealt not with Mr Calin, but with a man called "Benny". So who was he? We found him by investigating the director of Zus Transport named in Companies House records, a Romanian woman. Information about her is scarce, but we found a phone number for her. When we searched for the number in WhatsApp, it showed a profile picture of a young woman, with a different name, in a Lamborghini. The profile picture helped us identify her as a relative of Mr Calin, and the wife of a man named Benjamin Mustata. Mr Mustata and his wife had posed for a photo when collecting a Lamborghini from a dealership in April, a week after the theft targeting Alison's company.

TikTok Images of Benjamin Mustata posing with a Lamborghini helped the BBC connect him to the haulage firms

When we showed images from social media of Mr Mustata to a former owner of one of the transport companies, he identified him as "Benny" - the man he had met face-to-face to negotiate the sale of the company. A phone number Mr Mustata used in 2023 to rent a property in Coventry was also used to arrange collection of the goods stolen by the subcontractors who scammed Alison. The same number had also been used by "Benny" to buy one of the transport companies using Robert Calin's name and bank details. When we went to Mr Mustata's address to deliver a letter with questions about his suspected involvement in the theft, we were told he had moved to Romania. That was false. We tracked him down to Coventry, where he was selling luxury cars. Asked about Zus Transport, Mr Mustata said: "Go away." He denied using a dead man's identity to buy haulage companies and using Zus Transport to steal goods. He admitted buying Zus Transport, but said he did so on behalf of a relative and was not in control of the company at the time of the theft.

Watch: BBC challenges Benjamin Mustata about his links to Zus Transport

Pauline Quirke's family on her dementia: 'She's still funny and recognises us'

13 minutes ago Share Save Helen Bushby Culture reporter Share Save

Getty Images Pauline Quirke is most famous for playing Sharon Theodopolopodous in Birds of a Feather

The family of Birds of a Feather actress Pauline Quirke have spoken of their "disbelief" at her 2021 dementia diagnosis. Although the family are unsure what stage she is at, they said: "She's still funny, she's talking, she's happy." Despite being "very private", they told BBC Breakfast they wanted to raise awareness and funds for the condition. "My mum has always been a charitable person. It's what she would want me to do," said her son, Charlie Sheen.

Best-known for playing Sharon Theodopolopodous in long-running sitcom Birds of a Feather, 66-year-old Quirke was also nominated for a Bafta in 1997 for playing a convicted murderer in BBC drama The Sculptress. In 2022, she was made an MBE for services to the entertainment industry, young people, and charities. But earlier this year her husband, Steve Sheen, who she married in 1996, had to announce her retirement. This ended both her 50-year acting career, along with her role as head of Pauline Quirke Academy of Performing Arts, which has about 250 academies, and more than 15,000 young students across the UK.

Charlie and Michael Sheen said Quirke still tells them she loves them

Steve said they first got an inkling something might be wrong with Quirke in November 2020, after she received a script. "She started reading it and she phoned me on that day and said, the words are not going in. That's where it started," he said. Their reaction after the diagnosis was "disbelief, really". "We looked at each other and went, 'Can't be, it's long Covid. Got the flu'." Charlie added he was "quite surprised that this was possible in a woman in her 60s, and it can happen to people in their 50s, people in their 40s, so it's something you have to deal with and learn about". Dementia is described as "young onset" when symptoms develop before the age of 65. It most often develops in people between the ages of 45 and 65 but can affect people of any age. Asked what stage Quirke is at in her dementia journey, Steve said: "We don't know. She's still funny. She's talking. She's happy." "Is it four years, eight years, 10 years, 12 years, 20, who knows?" Charlie added: "And that's the problem, no one tells you. "My mum knows exactly who we are. Every time she sees all of us, she smiles, laughs, says 'I love you', says 'hello'."

They spoke about why they were sharing their experience, and what they had learned so far. "Unfortunately we are not in the state where we can do much about it," Steve said. "Just take every day and try and take the best moment out of that day you can. "It's a long journey. If we can just help a little bit by using Pauline as the catalyst to make more people aware, then we should, to use her to boost awareness and raise funds for dementia research."

(L-R) Pauline Quirke as Sharon Theodopolopodous, Lesley Joseph as Dorien Green and Linda Robson as Tracey Stubbs in Birds of a Feather

Steve said the impact of the condition hit them slowly. "It's so gradual that for the first year, two years, you're thinking, ah, she's alright. "Now, we're three or four years in, it's a little bit different. This is why awareness is important. We didn't know how long it lasts or how long you have with it, or how bad it is or how quick it is." Charlie added that it "progresses and changes every day, but so do we - we change and progress, and so we're forever learning". The NHS website states dementia is a syndrome (a group of related symptoms) "associated with an ongoing decline of brain functioning".

Quirke was nominated for a Bafta for playing murderer Olive Martin in BBC series The Sculptress

Next month, Charlie is doing a fundraising walk for Alzheimer's Research UK, going 140 kilometres to places that shaped his mother's life, including homes she has lived in, theatres and TV studios she has worked at. It will also include the Buckinghamshire headquarters of her children's drama academy. "This is my mum's legacy," he said. "This is going to be one of the stops on my trek, because she wanted to nurture the next generation of young actors." Steve paid tribute to his wife, saying: "What you see is what you get. Loving. Brilliant. She's an iconic actress because her talent is immense." Charlie added: "She is an incredible, strong, courageous woman that's been through a lot and she keeps going. "She's a fighter and it's incredible to see, yeah, very proud of her."

This close relationship between the tours on either side of the Atlantic mutually strengthens their positions while Saudi Arabia-funded LIV tries to make inroads against the golfing establishment.

Kinnings had no comment on their move from 54 to 72 holes next season. "It is entirely a decision they should make for the best for them," he said. "I wouldn't expect them to comment on what we do."

But a solution still needs to be found if the likes of Rahm and Hatton are able to retain the DPWT membership required for them to remain eligible for Ryder Cup teams.

Both are appealing against fines and suspensions imposed since their switches to LIV in 2024.

Kinnings agrees it needs sorting out.

"It does," he said. "That's a matter that's in the hands of the lawyers and so for me it would be wrong to be commenting any further about that. But that's in process."

Van Otterdijk wonders whether both players could be tempted to return to the establishment tours when their LIV contracts run out.

"Those guys may decide, look, we've made our money on the LIV tour," he speculated. "We'd like to go back to do other tours.

"How exactly that'll happen, I don't know. That'll be be the other interesting bit. Do they come back via the European tour, for example?

"As it currently stands, there is a roadblock back to the PGA Tour. They can't come back to that tour.

"But I would foresee that Guy might look at this and say, well come back via the European tour, earn one of the 10 cards and make your way back that way. That maybe be a good way of doing it, and that would suit us."

While publicly Kinnings is understandably cautious and circumspect about the future, the backers who lend their name to his tour are more outspoken. Money talks and DP World are putting plenty of it into the game.

They are convinced golf is approaching a crunch time. The splintered nature of men's professional golf cannot continue, even when someone as transcendently charismatic as McIlroy is reigning supreme.

Van Otterdijk brokered the latest deal which offers Kinnings' organisation a significant measure of security. But the DP World sponsorship boss wants more and is demanding unity.

"I think it's the only solution," he said. "They all see the need and the benefit of it. But that doesn't necessarily mean they're going to get it the way they want it.

"And that's the issue, that's where concessions and conciliations will need to be made. We've been very clear to all three parties that we've had discussions with.

"Listen to the fans and listen to the sponsors because without those two groups, you don't have a product and the players don't have any money to play for.

"So, I'm sure they will. Three different parties have a view to the same outcome, but they have three different ways of getting there.

"That's the challenge, right? That's the challenge to overcome."

Haaland's goalscoring record for Norway is nothing short of phenomenal.

He has hit 55 goals in 48 matches for his country.

And in fact he is only the sixth player ever, and the first in 53 years, to score 50 goals in fewer than 50 caps.

Norway's previous top scorer was 33-goal Jorgen Juve, who held that record for 90 years.

In these qualifiers he scored 16 goals - in eight games - plus two assists. That is double the goals tally anyone else has scored in Europe.

He is the top scorer in these qualifiers in any continent, including ones where teams play twice as more games.

Over a year has passed since Haaland last failed to score in a game for Norway.

Including games for City Haaland has scored 32 goals in 20 games this season.

But it is not just a one-man show.

Captain Martin Odegaard, 26, has more assists than anyone else in European qualifying - seven.

The Arsenal midfielder has played 67 times for Norway since making his debut at the age of 15.

"Combine Haaland's success with the fact that in this generation we also have Martin Odegaard," said Sivertsen.

"We're a country of five million people and we have both the best striker and I would argue the best playmaker, certainly one of the best playmakers, in the Premier League.

"Realistically that will not happen again in my lifetime and it's something that I am cherishing.

"If we have this conversation in five years I'd be baffled if there wasn't a consensus that these are the two best footballers we've ever had."

But Sivertsen added: "I think the group of players we have would have had a shot at qualifying without him."

He compared Haaland and Odegaard's standing to that of Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey when Wales got to the semi-finals at Euro 2016.

"That team doesn't work in the same way without Ashley Williams and Ben Davies at the back, without Joe Allen, without Joe Ledley," he said.

"Guys like this were absolutely integral for that team to work. You have to have a support structure around these stars to give them a platform to do special things."