China National Nuclear Corporation is a front for the Chinese Communist Party and seeking civil nuclear technology from the West to allegedly divert it to their military program, according to the diplomatic sources

New Delhi: China has intensified lobbying and "backchannel negotiation" in its attempts to obtain billions of dollars’ worth of civilian nuclear technology from France, global security agencies that track Beijing’s moves to dominate geo-politics, said.

The proposed move, if it fructifies, could be a setback for stability in Asia and emerge as a matter of concern for India, Japan and Taiwan.

France has lately been at the forefront of a pushback against Chinese ambitions in Europe and Beijing is currently "lobbying hard" to secure a visit by French President Macron in the near future, according to persons familiar with the dynamics of Sino-French ties.

Beijing was "engaging in political diplomacy and back-channel negotiations" to arrange a visit to China by the French president to clinch the nuclear deal, diplomatic sources told ET. China is seeking to "rekindle a 10-billion euro deal" between China and government-controlled French nuclear energy giant Orano, which stalled in late 2018 over security concerns.

The China National Nuclear Corporation, a state-owned body that oversees all China's military and civilian nuclear programs, has been actively seeking French technology for over a decade. A preliminary deal between Orano and China National Nuclear Corporation was signed in 2018. However, that deal was for "preparatory work" and it expired at the end of 2018, diplomatic sources said.

The proposal is for a major nuclear fuel “reprocessing and recycling” facility to be built in China by Orano and the China National Nuclear Corporation. China National Nuclear Corporation is a front for the Chinese Communist Party and seeking civil nuclear technology from the West to allegedly divert it to their military program, according to the diplomatic sources.

France and China share decades old nuclear cooperation. After launching economic reform in 1978, then-leader Deng Xiaoping in the same year decided to use French technology to build commercial nuclear reactors, the first of which entered into operation in 1994. Later other French backed reactors were set up in China.