UK lays groundwork for approval of controversial Chinese embassy

[LONDON] The UK appeared to lay the groundwork for approving China’s new embassy in London on the eve of a controversial decision that risks driving a deeper wedge both within the ruling Labour party and with the US administration.

Foreign minister Seema Malhotra sought to reassure members of parliament on Monday (Jan 19) of the involvement of Britain’s security services in the process, as they voiced concerns about the national security implications. Housing Secretary Steve Reed is due to announce the government’s decision on whether to grant planning permission for the embassy on Tuesday.

“Our intelligence services have been involved throughout, and a range of measures have been developed and are being implemented to protect national security,” Malhotra told the House of Commons late Monday.

She said “resolutions” had been reached over concerns about public access to the embassy and the consolidation of China’s diplomatic buildings across London into the single site.

The decision, which the government has delayed several times, is set to be controversial due to ongoing concerns about the site’s position near sensitive cables. There are also fears among campaigners and MPs that China will use the hub, which will become the largest diplomatic premises in Europe, for espionage, a charge it denies.

Government ministers have been quietly building the case for approval in recent months, with Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper both signalling satisfaction with Chinese efforts to resolve their concerns late last year.

Former head of MI6 Richard Moore said that there ought to be “a way through” for a new China embassy, while Prime Minister Keir Starmer called for closer business ties with the country just weeks ago.

Starmer plans to visit Beijing later this month, in a bid to repair relations after they froze for years under the previous Conservative government – exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, Beijing’s support for Russia’s war in Ukraine, and a series of spying and cyberattack allegations levelled by Britain against Chinese state-backed actors.

Despite the government’s reassurances, MPs from across the political spectrum called on it to deny China’s planning application the day before the decision. Sarah Champion, a Labour MP and chair of parliament’s International Development Committee, told Malhotra that she was not satisfied with her answers.

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“Once planning is given, we cannot take it back, we will have lost control,” Champion said. “This is not a risk we can afford to take, and the government should refuse this disastrous plan tomorrow.”

MPs also pointed to US House Speaker Mike Johnson’s intervention over the weekend, amid reports that the White House has previously privately voiced unease about the UK’s fast-approaching decision.

Johnson told the Times that he’s personally “concerned” about it.

“We have to let our friends here make their decision. But if it were me, I would be very cautious about that,” he said.

The decision comes at a sensitive time for UK-US relations, after US President Donald Trump threatened Britain and other European countries with tariffs for defending Greenland against his ambitions to take it over. Cooper echoed Starmer’s rebuke of Trump late Monday, telling MPs that the President’s threat is “completely wrong”, “unwarranted” and “counterproductive”, and is “no way to treat allies”. BLOOMBERG