A DORSET school appears to have fallen victim to the Chinese backlash to Britain's decision to ban Huawei from its communications infrastructure.

As previously reported, St Mary's Shaftesbury has fallen into administration and has shut permanently with immediate effect.

On its website, the private day and boarding school, which accommodated girls aged nine to 18 said: "St Mary’s Shaftesbury has now permanently closed. We wish all our girls every success for the future, and thank them for making this such a happy school."

However, it has now emerged that a Chinese education company which had been due to invest £6m to save the cash-strapped school pulled out at the last minute, blaming 'political tensions' between London and Beijing, according to the Sunday Times.

It was reported that the school was due to be bought by Achieve Education Group, a Shanghai-based group owned by businessman Chenming Bao that invests in UK schools.

Mike Farmer, a director of the company, told the paper that political tensions were a 'key factor' in the deal being pulled.

He cited a speech by Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, in which he said that it could not be 'business as usual' with China following the coronavirus crisis.

Mr Farmer said: "There is a general mood that investment is now discouraged, and that's having a ripple effect."

It was also revealed that former Tory leader, Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who is a leading critic of Huawei, was a governor of St Mary's between 2007 and 2009 and sent his daughters to the school.

Former pupils include the Duchess of Cornwall's daughter Laura Lopes and the novelist Sophie Kinsella.

In a letter to former pupils last week, the school governors said the school had been operating at a loss for some time.

It said Achieve had offered the school a 'generous deal, preserving the future and ensuring the ethos of the school, as well as committing significant funds to its future'.

However, 'In early June, the day before we were due to exchange contracts and communicate the news, political tensions with China forced them to pull out."

Following the announcement a fundraiser has been launched with hopes to save the school, with a target of £1.5million.

The page has raised nearly £30,000.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Secretary is to set out further measures in response to China's imposition of a tough new national security law on Hong Kong amid growing tensions with Beijing.

The Government looks likely to follow the example of the US, Canada and Australia and suspend the UK's extradition treaty with the territory - a move that would infuriate China.

In a strong signal that he is ready to go down the same route, Mr Raab confirmed at the weekend that he had completed a review of Britain's extradition arrangements as part of the next steps.

China was already smarting over the Government's decision last week to exclude the tech giant Huawei from the UK's 5G network - reversing a decision in January allowing it a limited role.

Mr Raab threatened to pour further fuel on flames, accusing the communist regime of committing "gross, egregious human rights abuses" against the country's Uighur population in the north-western Xinjiang province.

The criticism was furthered by the chair of the defence select committee, Tobias Ellwood, who said Britain has "been duped over the last couple of decades" by China.

He told BBC Radio 4's Westminster Hour programme: "I really want to see a reset of our entire foreign policy, bearing in mind that we are sliding towards a cold war, we can't do this on our own, we need to work with our allies."

"We turned a blind eye to what was going on with the Uighur population, we turned a blind eye to the uneven trade situation whereby Chinese companies could operate quite liberally within the UK and elsewhere but our companies couldn't operate within China and now I think it's time to say enough is enough."

The Chinese ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming, said Beijing was still evaluating its response to the Huawei ruling.

There were reports at the weekend that the the Chinese social media company TikTok had broken off talks to open a global headquarters in Britain.

Communist Party officials were also reported to have warned UK companies operating in China, including Jaguar Land Rover, BP and GlaxoSmithKline, that they could now face retaliation.

Mr Liu warned Britain not to get drawn into a "tit-for-tat" confrontation in the way the US had, imposing sanctions on Chinese officials over alleged abuses in Xinjiang, prompting Beijing to sanction a number of US senators and officials.

Mr Raab played down suggestions any such measures were imminent under the UK's new independent sanctions regime, saying that it took a long time to build a case against any alleged abusers.

He insisted also that Britain wanted a "positive relationship" with China, working with it on issues like climate change as well as trade and investment.

However, with further UK measures due now on Hong Kong, relations look set to deteriorate even further.

The Government says the new national security law violates the Sino-British Joint Declaration which was supposed to guarantee Hongkongers' way of life for 50 years after the handover of the former British colony in 1997.

In response, it has already offered a path to UK citizenship for three million Hongkongers eligible for British National (Overseas) passport - a move which enraged Beijing.

In a combative BBC interview on Sunday, Mr Liu denounced Britain for "dancing to the tune" of the US and accused Western countries of trying to foment a "new cold war" with China.

He also rejected the allegations of widespread abuses against the mainly-Muslim Uighur people, accusing "so-called Western intelligence" of making repeated "false allegations" against China.

He suggested video footage, said to be from Xinjiang, showing men, kneeling and blindfolded waiting to be led onto trains by police officers was "fake".

Meanwhile, China is expected to be high on the agenda this week when US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo travels to London for talks with senior British figures.

Mr Pompeo flies out on Monday ahead of meetings expected on Tuesday with Boris Johnson and Mr Raab, as well as MPs pressing the Government to take a harder line on China.

The US has warmly welcomed the Government's U-turn on Huawei, which followed intensive lobby by the Trump administration.

Ministers said they had little choice after the intelligence services warned they could no longer be sure Huawei products were secure after the US imposed fresh sanctions on the company.