On Wednesday, the French energy company EDF submitted its plans to build the next nuclear power plant in Suffolk. EDF intends to work together with the Chinese state-owned energy company, China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN), on the project. The two companies are already collaborating on the construction of the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station in Somerset, where CGN has helped to fund a third of the £20 billion cost.

However, CGN was accused by the US government in 2016 of engaging in espionage dating back to the nineties in order to steal US technology, a charge it strenuously denies.

Last year, the Trump administration placed the company on its “entity list”, effectively banning US firms from doing business with it.

Amid growing concern in Parliament over Chinese ownership of national strategic assets, senior Tory MPs have urged the prime minister to overhaul his energy policy.

The former Conservative leader Iain Duncan-Smith warned the power plant was “the next Huwaei” and would increase the UK’s dependency on China.

He told the Daily Telegraph: “It is another major manifestation of the problem we face having set out on the wrong path with China years ago.

“With Huawei, with Sizewell C, one by one you will see the scale of dependency we have created on China and we have to deal with it.”

He added: “I think our whole energy policy needs to be reviewed in light of our issue with China.”

Mr Duncan-Smith received backing from another Tory MP, Bob Seely.

JUST IN: Pompeo threatens to rescind Hong Kong’s special trade status in row

He argued such a review should encompass “free and fair trade, human rights, surveillance, espionage and security, the risks of Chinese CNI in the UK, the Communist party’s geopolitical ambitions as well as the interests of our key allies in the Pacific”.

It comes as the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo threatened to rescind Hong Kong’s special trade status in response to Beijing’s plans to introduce a controversial new security law.

Mr Pompeo said that Hong Kong was no longer autonomous from China and as a result did not merit special treatment under US law.

The declaration is likely to have huge economic implications for China, as it threatens Hong Kong’s status as a trade hub and international financial centre.

Mr Pompeo’s remarks came in response to Beijing’s plan to impose a draconian new security law, which would ban treason, secession, sedition and subversion in the former British colony.

Critics have argued that the new China law is a blatant attempt to curtail freedoms granted to Hong Kong in the mini-constitution that was agreed when the territory returned to Chinese rule in 1997.

n a statement on Wednesday, the US Secretary of State said China’s plan to impose the new security legislation in Hong Kong was “only the latest in a series of actions that fundamentally undermine Hong Kong’s autonomy and freedoms.”

“No reasonable person can assert today that Hong Kong maintains a high degree of autonomy from China, given facts on the ground,” he said.

“After careful study of developments over the reporting period, I certified to Congress today that Hong Kong does not continue to warrant treatment under United States laws in the same manner as US laws were applied to Hong Kong before July 1997.”