The United Kingdom on Tuesday authorized a massive new Chinese embassy in London, despite international concerns that the facility could be used to spy on the country.
The embassy, set to be China’s largest in Europe, will sit on the Royal Mint Court, near the Tower of London. Members of parliament within both the ruling Labor and opposition Conservative parties have been outspoken in their objections, while House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) weighed in on the dispute this week, citing concerns that “China would have such a prominent place.”
Housing Secretary Steve Reed dismissed critics this week, formally approving plans for the $301 million site after a seven-year delay. The “quasi-judicial” decision had been made “fairly, based on evidence and planning rules,” he said, adding that “the decision is now final unless it is successfully challenged in court.”
The new embassy will replace and consolidate several diplomatic buildings China utilizes across London, including the country’s main diplomatic premise in Portland Place, which Beijing has used since 1877.
Ahead of his address to the U.K. parliament on Tuesday, Johnson echoed the concerns of leading British figures when he referenced the embassy’s close proximity to underground fiber optic cables carrying sensitive financial information between London’s two main financial districts. And Johnson lamented Britain’s move to deepen ties with China, ahead of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s trip to Beijing later this month. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney made a similar pilgrimage to the country last week, as Western nations increasingly look to other partners due to concerns the U.S. is not a “predictable” ally.
China’s new site does not mark a “great development from our perspective,” Johnson told Sky News. “I wish the U.S. had taken that spot instead of China … There is some symbolism to that.
“I think that’s part of the concern, just from friends who — and I say this as constructive criticism to our friends here — but it does send a certain message, it seems, that China would have such a prominent place and have such, as they would call it, a mega-embassy,” he added. “I wish that there was a lesser reliance upon China for everyone around the world.”
Rep. John Moolenaar (R-MI), who chairs the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, also led U.S. opposition to the development.
“The U.K.’s decision defies common sense,” Moolenaar said in a press release Tuesday. “It is effectively rewarding China for spying on Parliament, interfering in the U.K.’s elections, and fueling Russia’s war in Ukraine. China is also suspected of cutting undersea cables, so letting it build on the land above critical infrastructure is a serious security risk. The only safeguard against the mega-embassy is to prohibit its construction.”
Some of the controversy stems from a Daily Telegraph report, stating Beijing’s new site contains an underground complex of 208 rooms, including a “hidden chamber” near the data cables, which had been previously blacked out in redacted plans.
In a letter explaining its decision, the housing ministry said there was “no suggestion” that a “lawful embassy use of the site would give rise to any such interference.”
The heads of Britain’s intelligence services, the Security Service MI5 and the Government Communications Headquarters, said Tuesday it is “not realistic to expect to be able wholly to eliminate each and every potential risk.” But they expressed confidence in efforts to “formulate a package of national security mitigations for the site.”
The statement comes after a group of nine Labour MPs who said they represent “the breadth and depth of our party” warned Reed that “the concerns surrounding the proposed site remain significant and unresolved.”
Their letter highlighted “the recent track record of Chinese espionage cases, interference activities, and issuing of bounties against U.K.-based Hong Kongers.” Signatory Sarah Champion, who sits on parliament’s Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy, said she has previously found Chinese spyware on her parliamentary computer.
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Conservative MPs, among them opposition leader Kemi Badenoch, have aired concerns as well.
“We do not want a country that spies on our MPs having this super-embassy right here,” Badenoch said at a protest against the site over the weekend. “We know that we have to stand up to the abuses of China. And what worries me is that we have a government right now that seems to be scared of China.”