RedBird IMI’s bid for The Telegraph is not as risky as the critics claim

Abu Dhabi’s leaders may not share all our democratic values, but when it comes to counterterrorism, they run a very tight ship

Aged 95, Li Ka-shing is a little too old to spend much time in Britain surveying his business empire. But the Hong Kong billionaire’s footprint can be found all over the UK.
His company, CK Hutchison Holdings, is behind vital services to millions of homes. Through subsidiaries, the Cayman Islands-registered conglomerate controls: the entire electricity network in London and the south east; gas services to homes and business across the north; water supplies and sewage services to millions of people in the south east; and drinking water to homes across 9,400 sq km of Yorkshire, Durham, Tyne and Wear and Northumberland. For good measure, Mr Li also owns Felixstowe, the UK’s largest container port.
Mr Li – a one-time friend of Chinese President Xi Jinping – is all over our critical national infrastructure. This places him in a position of phenomenal power. There is no evidence at all that he intends to abuse it – but who knows what Beijing might do, in the awful event that we find ourselves at war? Even a lesser diplomatic crisis leaves us dangerously exposed.
As ministers come under mounting pressure to prevent an Emirati billionaire from acquiring this newspaper, it is worth reflecting on their attitude towards foreign ownership of other great British assets.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak admits China poses what he has called “an epoch defining challenge to the international order” – yet successive Conservative governments have gone out of their way to court Chinese state investment in our utilities. The Tories even encouraged Beijing to design and develop new nuclear power stations. What could possibly go wrong?
Then there was the shambles over Huawei. Despite grave national security concerns, in 2020 Boris Johnson came perilously close to allowing the Chinese tech firm to develop our 5G mobile communications network. It took an intervention by Donald Trump to force him into an embarrassing U-turn.
Under pressure from spy chiefs, ministers are belatedly rowing back on our addiction to Chinese investment. But over the years, only a few brave MPs such as Iain Duncan Smith have shown any interest or concern.
Against this backdrop, the fuss about the Abu Dhabi-backed Redbird IMI’s bid to buy the Telegraph Media Group is bewildering. 
Sadly no media outlet is as important to the population of this country as their drinking water, their central heating and their electricity supply – yet ministers are being encouraged to treat the involvement of an Arab Sheikh in the potential acquisition of one newspaper as a national security threat.
Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer has indicated that she is “minded” to open a second investigation into the Abu-Dhabi backed bid, fretting about “free expression of opinion and accurate presentation of news in the newspapers”. MPs are lining up to jump on the bandwagon.
Yet Redbird IMI has made it amply clear that the Sheikh will be an entirely passive investor. Multiple undertakings have been made about retaining the paper’s editorial independence. They are hardly going to turn it into Pravda.
Where were all these people when Russian oligarch Alexander Lebedev – a former KGB agent no less – bought the London Evening Standard? And why aren’t they shouting from the rooftops about Chinese-owned TikTok?
The hysteria surrounding RedBird IMI’s bid is all the more curious given the benign role of the UAE in the Middle East. It poses no threat to the UK.
On the contrary, the Emiratis are our allies in a relationship that grows ever more important as the region becomes more dangerous and unstable.
Their leaders may not share all our democratic values, but when it comes to counterterrorism, they run a very tight ship, to the benefit of us all. Moreover, they were responsible for the historic Abraham Accords, without which the dreadful position Israel finds itself following last year’s Hamas attacks would be much worse.
The Telegraph has a hugely important influence on political debate, but it is not a train set. It cannot survive unless it makes money. If RedBird’s bid is successful, why would the investment fund destroy its new asset by crushing its reputation for impartial reporting?
If the government blocks this bid, I look forward to Mr Li and others being given their marching orders.