The Scottish Government has continued to back Ming Yang’s proposed investment at Ardersier despite national security concerns. It’s now being accused of a “staggering” failure of due diligence on the firm.
This summer we revealed that convicted loyalists from Belfast travelled to Glasgow for a far right protest. Further digging has unearthed a rapidly expanding anti-immigration network between Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Authorities tightened the rules around this Scottish business scheme after years of exploitation for financial crime. Moscow entities – and a man accused of facilitating child sex abuse – are still selling it to clients seeking “financial privacy”.
The Scottish Government has continued to back Ming Yang’s proposed investment at Ardersier despite national security concerns. It’s now being accused of a “staggering” failure of due diligence on the firm.
The boss of a Chinese renewables firm, backed by the SNP to build a controversial factory in Scotland, was named in a bribery scandal, The Ferret has found.
Ming Yang Smart Energy announced plans last October for a £1.5bn wind turbine factory at Ardersier in the Highlands, promising up to 1,500 jobs at the former oil and gas yard.
The project was effectively blocked by Westminster on national security grounds in March. First minister John Swinney branded that decision “anti-Scottish” and last month called on new prime minister Andy Burnham to reverse it.
But now his government’s years-long support of Ming Yang is under renewed scrutiny after we unearthed a court judgement from a 2015 corruption trial in China.
It shows Ming Yang’s chairman, Zhang Chuanwei, admitted paying $20,000 (£14,800) to the head of a government department in the southern province of Guangdong between 2011 and 2013.
The money is described in the judgement as a “bribe” to thank the Chinese state official for his support. The department he led had previously awarded Ming Yang 25.3m yuan (around £2.8m) in research funding.
The official was jailed for life for accepting the payments and other bribes used to pay his son’s gambling debts.
Ming Yang has told us that Zhang, who gave evidence as a witness, was not convicted, charged, or penalised in connection with the allegations.
However, Luke De Pulford, executive director of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, claimed the case raised “alarming questions” about the security risk posed by Ming Yang and could be used as “leverage” by the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) over Zhang.
He said that the Scottish Government’s continuing support of the company “without identifying or confronting basic court records” was a “staggering failure of due diligence”.
Help us keep digging
Investigations like this one take time. We had to trace court records across jurisdictions, double check translations, and put detailed questions to everyone involved.
If you value careful journalism that follows the evidence wherever it leads, please help us by becoming a member of our investigative journalism co-op.
Ming Yang, which is privately owned, says it is not controlled by the Chinese state and poses no threat to the UK.
The Scottish Government insisted its due diligence was “proportionate to the nature and stage of investment proposals and any public support under consideration”.
Jamie Mann
Despite the fact we highlighted the bribery case to the Scottish Government earlier this month, on Friday, the SNP stuck to its position that blocking the factory was Labour being “entirely political”.
The party's Westminster energy spokesperson, Graham Leadbitter, said the fact Ming Yang had been blocked from investing in Scotland – but that Chinese companies continued to hold stakes in the UK’s energy network, including in battery storage – “confirms what we all suspected – the decision to block 1,500 Highland jobs appears to be entirely political”.
He continued: “If this UK Labour government is so concerned about national security, then why is it allowing Chinese firms to invest in battery storage, nuclear plants, airports, and super-embassies south of the border - is it because it’s in the Highlands and not Hertfordshire?”
Swinney has reportedly received a briefing from UK ministers over the national security threat that allowing Ming Yang to set up in Scotland could pose to the country.
But despite this, the first minister has continued to advocate for its investment in Scotland.
The first minister hosted Zhang at his official residence, Bute House, in July 2025. The pair bonded over their mutual love of running at that meeting – their second in less than a year – with Swinney describing Zhang’s business career as “impressive”.
Concerns raised about the use of Chinese turbines include that they could be used to spy on UK waters or allow Beijing to remotely disrupt power supplies.
There are also fears the UK could become dependent on Chinese energy technology, leaving it vulnerable to price hikes or if relations deteriorate.
The US reportedly warned UK officials about allowing Ming Yang into the country last year, around the same time it cautioned Keir Starmer against giving the go-ahead for Beijing’s so-called “super-embassy” in London.
Britain’s security services have also reportedly been feeding into a review of China’s role in the UK energy system in recent years.
Some industry figures argue Britain will struggle to meet green energy targets without Chinese equipment, and say its components are already used in offshore turbines.
Ming Yang, one of the world’s biggest turbine makers, has denied the Chinese government could use a so-called “kill switch” to remotely shut them down.
It says all data from UK projects would be controlled in Britain with “strict access protocols, independent oversight, and certified cybersecurity systems in place”.
The Scottish Government has been criticised for failing to turn the country’s wind power boom into more manufacturing jobs. This made the potential investment at Ardersier, near Inverness – where 4,500 workers were once employed to build platforms for the North Sea oil industry – particularly attractive.
De Pulford argued that despite this, Scotland should “not be handing over critical energy infrastructure to companies tied to state-sanctioned corruption and security risks.”
He said the incident raised “alarming questions about vulnerability, coercion, and national security risk”.
“In China’s political system, unresolved legal liabilities like this don’t just disappear, they become state leverage,” De Pulford claimed.
Karin Goodwin
Johanna Krebs, an analyst at the Mercator Institute for China Studies, said Beijing did not require leverage of this sort to influence private companies abroad because it already had sweeping powers to do so.
Krebs said European leaders were being faced with a dilemma about Chinese involvement in European renewable energy projects, which required them to balance efforts to tackle the climate crisis with real concerns about national and economic security.
“This includes the threat that Chinese companies could disrupt European grids and that the entry of Chinese companies into the European renewable market could undermine domestic manufacturers and cause even more dependence on Chinese exports,” she said.
Andrew Bowie, the Conservative shadow secretary for energy security, said Swinney appeared “so desperate to do business with Beijing” that he was “willing to brush aside every warning about the risks to Scotland’s security”.
He added: “Swinney must stop dismissing legitimate security concerns surrounding Ming Yang and come clean on how much background checks they carried out on this firm and its leadership.”
The Scottish Government’s commercial “due diligence guidance” states that it is “crucial to understand the ownership” of potential investors as well as “key figures within the operation”.
It adds that: “This information is required to ensure proper due diligence can be undertaken as to the owners and associated personnel of a business to ensure reputational risk to SG [Scottish Government] is considered.”
A spokesperson for the Scottish Government said: “Any decision to enter into a partnership with, or to provide public financial support, with any organisation would be subject to appropriate and robust due diligence.”
It said these checks could include issues related to bribery, corruption and other serious misconduct.
A UK Government spokesperson said it had a “strategic” approach to relations with China “whilst never compromising on security and resilience”. There were no plans to change the Government's position on Ming Yang, they said.
A spokesperson for Ming Yang said: “Neither the company nor its relevant personnel have ever been convicted, charged or received any penalties issued from any competent authorities, including for bribery for the cases mentioned.
“As a listed company on both the Shanghai Stock Exchange Main Board and the London Stock Exchange, Ming Yang Smart Energy strictly complies with the laws and regulations of all the countries in which it operates, and firmly opposes all forms of commercial bribery and corruption.
“During the IPO application processes the company was subject to rigorous due diligence reviews by regulatory authorities of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, in 2019, and the London Stock Exchange, in 2022, regarding its internal controls, integrity, compliance, and anti-bribery systems.”
Our reporting makes a difference
Good journalism should reveal something new, stand up to scrutiny, and leave the public better informed. That takes time – and your support.
Authorities tightened the rules around this Scottish business scheme after years of exploitation for financial crime. Moscow entities – and a man accused of facilitating child sex abuse – are still selling it to clients seeking “financial privacy”.
The Scottish Government’s green watchdog sent seven letters over three years alleging multiple breaches at a fish farm – and then issued a final warning letter.
This US-style right-wing political pressure group keeps its funders a secret. Its members have helped man Scotland’s anti-migrant and asylum demonstrations.
Adult adoptees are calling for access to genetic testing to address the ‘health gap’ caused by their lack of information about genetically inherited conditions.
