The four flashpoints of Starmer’s Chinese embassy decision ...Middle East

Protesters are gathering near to the Tower of London to oppose plans to build a new Chinese “mega” embassy.

The government is due to announce plans to build a new Chinese embassy in the old Royal Mint Court, the former site of the UK’s coin maker.

The building will be China’s largest embassy in Europe spanning 20,000 square meters, including underground rooms positioned between London’s two financial hubs.

Critics of the scheme have suggested the new complex will pose a potential security risk and could affect exiles living in the country.

Starmer’s visit to China

The decision on the embassy is due to be made ahead of Sir Keir Starmer’s trip to China, which is expected to take place at the end of this month.

The trip will be the first trip to China by a Prime Minister since Theresa May visited in 2018.

In a speech at the Lady Mayor’s banquet in December, the prime minister said he wanted to build a careful relationship with China.

Starmer said he was aware of the “reality” that China “poses national security threats” but wanted to build a relationship that would help secure UK national interests and improve it standing on the international stage.

Starmer told the BBC: “For years we have blown hot and cold. We had the golden age, which then flipped to an Ice Age. We reject that binary choice.

“So our response will not be driven by fear, nor softened by illusion. It will be grounded in strength, clarity and sober realism.”

Underground rooms

A report by The Daily Telegraph earlier this week that it had uncovered “detailed plans” for a network a network of 208 underground “secret rooms” beneath the embassy.

The newspaper said that unredacted versions of the plans it had obtained revealed that one of these subterranean rooms would be situated alongside fibre-optic cables transmitting financial data to the City of London.

It said these cables also include “email and messaging traffic for millions of intent users”.

The report went on to say the plans also suggest that China intends to demolish and rebuild the outer basement wall of the chamber, which it says is “directly beside the fibre optic cables”

The report was highlighted by Conservative shadow Home Office minister Alicia Kearns who raised the newspaper’s findings during Tuesday’s debate in the Commons.

She said that access to the underground cables “would give the Chinese Communist Party a launch pad for economic warfare against our nation”.

Kearns asked Planning Minister Matthew Pennycook if the government had called in the Chinese ambassador “to explain those secret rooms?”

She added: “The embassy would create a daily headache for our security services.”

Pennycook said he could not comment on “individual aspects of the case” or “speculation in the press”.

Fears from Washington

Following the report, a senior official told the paper the White House was concerned about the plans.

A senior administration official told the newspaper: “The United States remains deeply concerned about adversaries exploiting the critical infrastructure of our closest allies.”

The paper reported that John Moolenaar, the chairman of the US House of Representatives’ select committee on China, “opposed” the embassy plans and raised fears that Americans’ data may be “at risk”.

Moolenaar was quoted as saying: “The CCP is a threat to the UK – a Five Eyes intelligence partner – and free people everywhere.”

‘Transnational repression‘

One of the organisers of today’s protest, Luke de Pulford of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, said he was worried about the impact of the plans on dissidents living in the UK.

Appearing on BBC Newsnight earlier this week he said: “What we have seen and what the evidence points towards is that when you have more Chinese state employees, you have more Chinese state interference.”

Mr de Pulford described the embassy as a “colossal complex” with plans for 232 move-on flats.

He said: “We have seen in recent reporting that there is already a huge increase in the number of Chinese diplomats who have come to Britain.

“That is a very worrisome thought for the many dissidents who have recently come to the United Kingdom who are suffering threats of intimidation and what people call Transnational repression as a result of the activities of both the Chinese Communist Party and United Front organisations.”

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Former Chinese diplomat Victor Gao and vice president of the Center for China and Globalisation, told the show that China’s current embassy, which was established in 1877, was no longer suitable.

He said: “China needs a bigger embassy and Britain needs a larger embassy in Beijing. I understand this discussion with the British government has lasted more than eight years

“I think it’s time for China and Britain to give respect to each other and grant premises that each other has chosen.”

The Government has been approached for comment.

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