1/7 Amid Covid-19 crisis you may have missed this. China Reform Holdings tried on Tuesday to nominate 4 directors to the board of UK's Imagination Technologies Group (chip designer). This is a bold move & could allow redomiciling of company & assets to PRC https://news.sky.com/story/tory-grandees-warn-over-chinese-move-on-chipmaker-imagination-11968912

2/7 Here I'll take a quick look at the Chinese side of this development. In 2017 Imagination was taken over by Canyon Bridge Capital Partners. Canyon's main investor is China Reform Holdings Corp 中国国新控股有限责任公司. For a start Canyon's original involvement is problematic.

3/7 Canyon was set up by Ben Chow who asked Ray Bingham to lead and thought a "U.S.-based buyout fund with a U.S. partner like Bingham would trigger much less scrutiny by CFIUS [US body that reviews foreign investment in US] compared with a Chinese buyer" https://www.reuters.com/article/us-lattice-m-a-canyondbridge-bingham/former-oracle-board-member-dogged-by-links-to-china-backed-chip-deal-idUSKBN19703P

4/7 Looking at China Reform Holdings at the head of this chain is also worthwhile. Not a big surprise they're enmeshed in party-state but even considering that - I think they lay it on a bit thick in their literature. For example, take a look at the Chairman's message...

5/7 If you don't read Chinese then pop this into Google translate and you'll at least get a flavour. They're "adhering to the guidance of Xi Jinping's new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics in the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the CCP" https://www.crhc.cn/gygx/speech/ 

6/7 They also appear to be slightly more involved in united front work than most comparable groups as well: https://www.crhc.cn/djgz/djdt/201912/t20191231_2844.html There is more to this but I have an PhD thesis to write (on UK-China elite relations) so will have to leave it there. Let's see how this plays out

7/7 For more in the coming days on the tech side of this deal - do look out for @DempseyPaul's content when posted. FYI @CommonsForeign @CommonsSTC @TomTugendhat @foreignoffice