China Gets OK for a 'Mega' Embassy in London

China just got the green light for what will be its biggest embassy in Europe, right next to London's financial nerve center. The UK government has approved Beijing's long-stymied plan to turn Royal Mint Court, a historic former coin-minting site bought by China in 2018 for roughly $312 million, into a 215,000-square-foot compound, reports CNN. A 240-page planning ruling said the project fits with local development rules overall, clearing the way after three previous delays and overruling a local council that rejected the plan in 2022. China's current embassy is near Regent's Park; the new "mega" base, which the AP notes would be located near the Tower of London, would sit close to fiber-optic cables that move vast amounts of financial and email data.

That proximity has set off alarms. The Telegraph reports that unredacted blueprints show 208 underground rooms, including one just feet from those cables. Alicia Kearns, the opposition Conservatives' shadow national security minister, warns that the complex would hand the Chinese Communist Party "a launchpad for economic warfare" and burden British security services, per CNN. Dissidents from Hong Kong and other Chinese activists in exile say they fear increased surveillance and harassment. Some, like Hong Kong democracy advocate Carmen Lau—wanted by Hong Kong police with a cash bounty attached—see the site as a potential tool to pressure critics abroad.

The MI5 spy service has issued broad warnings about Chinese state threats and even flagged alleged intelligence activity on LinkedIn, but the agency didn't formally object to the embassy plan. London's decision may also reflect some diplomatic horse-trading: China has reportedly slowed the UK's efforts to revamp its own embassy in Beijing while pressing for approval in London. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has called for a "consistent, durable, respectful" relationship with China amid falling UK exports and fragile trade ties, faced both protests outside the proposed site and a pointed warning from Beijing that Britain would "bear all consequences" if it said no to the embassy.