Japan has been paying 10,000 pounds per month to a British think tank to hype up "China threat" among British high-level politicians, local media reported Sunday.

A detailed report carried out by The Sunday Times said that the Japanese Embassy in London reached a deal with the Henry Jackson Society (HJS), a registered charity, to wage a propaganda campaign against China.

It said that the deal was reached in response to growing cooperation between China and Britain.

This weekend, the former British foreign secretary Malcolm Rifkind acknowledged that the HJS, founded in 2005, had approached him to put his name to an article published by the Daily Telegraph last August expressing concerns about China's involvement in Britain's Hinkley Point C nuclear plant.

The article, titled "How China could switch off Britain's lights in a crisis if we let them build Hinkley C", raised fears that "no one knows what 'blackdoor' technologies might be able to be introduced into the building of a power plant."

The Sunday Times said Japan's secret PR (public relations) war on China reflects Tokyo's concerns about the "golden decade" of Sino-British cooperation.

The HJS has not responded to Xinhua's interview request.