China’s plans for a sprawling ‘Super Embassy’ in the heart of the United Kingdom are gathering pace amid protests from Londoners and rights groups who are alarmed and angry amid concerns of large-scale Chinese spying.
China is making progress on plans for its new diplomatic outpost at Royal Mint Court, a large parcel of land in the center of London that was bought by China in 2018 for a whopping $312 million.
Spread over 20,000 square kilometres, the site is much bigger than the premises currently occupied by Chinese diplomats. The site is located just opposite of Tower of London and is a stone’s throw away from several strategic landmarks.
Earlier, the plans of the “super embassy” were rejected by local officials in 2022. Following Labour’s election victory last year, Beijing resubmitted its plan with no significant changes. The Tower Hamlet rejected the plan again in December 2024.
The plan has been viewed with suspicion for a variety of reasons. It involves a cultural centre and housing for 200 staff, but in the basement, behind security doors, there are also rooms with no identified use on the plans, marked “redacted for security reasons”.
Since the proposal has been rejected by the local council, the government now has the last say. As per the latest reports, the UK’s Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary, Angela Rayner, is anticipated to decide by September 9 whether to approve the plans.
Last week, Rayner gave China two weeks to explain why certain sections of the blueprint it submitted for the expansive embassy location were blacked out. Beijing reportedly has until August 20 to explain why the material was censored.
The plan is backed by senior Labor officials, some of whom call for minor changes for approval, amid warming of ties between the two countries since Labor came to power.
The political relations between the UK and China worsened under former UK Conservative Prime Ministers. However, the Keir Starmer administration has been making concerted efforts to recenter the relationship. Last November, a closed-door meeting between Starmer and Chinese President Xi Jinping marked the beginning of this reset.
The prime minister hinted that Britain might want to work with China on business and climate change. Since then, the possible financial benefits have been the main focus of Labour’s cautious approach to China.
In January, for instance, Chancellor Rachel Reeves co-chaired the first UK-China economic summit since 2019. “Choosing not to engage with China is no choice at all,” she claimed, defending the decision.
The grown bonhomie between the two countries, despite the mutual mistrust and Britain’s close alignment with the US, could pave the way for the approval of a Chinese super embassy. The British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and Foreign Secretary David Lammy earlier emphasized the “importance of countries having functioning diplomatic premises in each other’s capitals,” making a case for the green light amid local opposition.
If the proposal is approved, China is anticipated to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to refurbish the facility and make it the largest embassy in Europe, which is already under CCTV surveillance and patrolled by Chinese security guards.
However, it has rattled the locals, the security establishment, UK intelligence, as well as the political dissidents living in Britain after defying persecution in their home countries.
Alarm Over A Mammoth Chinese Embassy In London
As per a recent BBC News report, a studio-clicked photo of a woman along with a £95,000 bounty was found pasted outside the structure that will become home to the Chinese super embassy. “Provide information on this wanted person and the related crime or take her to the Chinese embassy,” the poster reads.
The “wanted person,” Carmen Lau, is a former Hong Kong resident who fled Hong Kong in 2021 as pro-democracy activists in the territory were being arrested.
Carmen says that the super embassy should not be allowed to come up in London, expressing fears that it could be used to harass or even arrest political dissidents. The concern is rooted in history, as there have been instances of violence against political dissidents in multiple cities of the United Kingdom.
Many people have chosen to migrate to the UK from the former British colony, which is now a Chinese metropolis with some autonomy, where Beijing has repressed opposition severely over the last five years.
International rights organizations have urged the British government to reject the plan because they are concerned about a rise in Chinese espionage and infiltration efforts against Tibetans, Uyghurs, Hong Kong residents, and supporters of the British democratic movement.
The planned embassy “would serve as a hub for China’s authoritarian agenda, targeting dissidents, monitoring communities, and undermining democratic values on British soil,” the Free Tibet group said in a post on X earlier this year.
The biggest concern regarding the super embassy is related to espionage. The residents have been protesting the Chinese ‘super embassy’ plans, saying that it could lead to security risks and spying attempts.
The locals living close to the site have expressed alarm over their personal security. “Our office is just facing it, and we are one unit in a block of maybe 2,000 employees who work there, and I’ve not heard anybody say one good thing about it,” said Barry, an insurance broker who spoke to CNN.
Some are also concerned that the Royal Mint Court location might give China access to fiber optic connections that transmit private information for businesses in the City of London, allowing them to influence the UK financial system. The location was directly connected to the financial infrastructure of the UK because it was previously the location of Barclays Bank’s trading floor.
In addition to this, there was concern that nearby historical landmarks, such as the Tower of London, which is directly across from the building, would be at risk if the super embassy were allowed.
The super embassy, it is believed, would also pose a threat to the US super-embassy in Nine Elms, located just a few kilometers away.
China has been accused of spying by several countries across the world, particularly in the West. In fact, the relationship between the UK and China deteriorated during the Conservative government due to suspicions of Chinese spying and meddling in the country’s internal affairs.
In October 2023, British MI5 warned that more than 20,000 people in the UK had been approached covertly online by Chinese spies. It warned that tens of thousands of British businesses were at risk of having their innovation stolen.
Additionally, British defense officials alleged in 2022 that Beijing spies were responsible for 18 drone sightings at military sites and power facilities around the UK in just two years. The drone sightings reportedly occurred between 2019 and 2021; however, the military bases’ locations were kept secret for national security concerns. All these incidents combined have created an atmosphere of suspicion and mistrust.
More recently, the British intelligence agency, M15, has also warned that the new embassy building would be extremely close to crucial communication cables, which could be compromised or attacked by the Chinese in a potential espionage attempt.
Additionally, London’s Metropolitan Police asserted that if the project goes through, it will lead to protests by locals and result in diverting troops from national security duty to the region to control the protestors.
“Policing this proposed Embassy would require officers to be taken away from frontline duties to fulfill the requirement of policing spontaneous and known protests at this location,” Jon Savell, Deputy Assistant Commissioner of Special Operations, said in a letter dated November 14 last year.
However, China has dismissed these “suspicions” as a smear campaign launched by the British media. The Chinese embassy told the BBC it “is committed to promoting understanding and the friendship between the Chinese and British peoples and the development of mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries. Building the new embassy would help us better perform such responsibilities”.
As the wrangling continues, all eyes are now on China’s purported clarification and whether it will be accepted by the British government.
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