China paid £225 million in 2018 for the old Royal Mint Court in London. The site is 20,000 square metres and the intention is to build the biggest embassy in Europe. The plans include a ‘cultural centre’ and housing for 200 staff and there are also rooms in the basement behind security doors that have no identified use on the plans.
China’s first planning application to develop the site was rejected by Tower Hamlets council in 2022. Since then the Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner has taken the matter out of the hands of the council after being urged to do so by Foreign Secretary, David Lammy.
Before the government finally make their decision they need to seriously consider the opinions of MI5 and other intelligence services as the information below is just the tiny tip of an enormous iceberg.
- On 16 October 2022 – the day of the opening of the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party– a clash broke out at the Chinese consulate in Manchester, between UK-based Hong Kong pro-democracy activists and members of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Consulate General
The clash started when consulate members, including the consul general Zheng Xiyuan and staff attempted to take down protest signs that were being used as part of a demonstration against the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) outside the Consulate General. During the demo, a protester named Bob Chan was pulled into consulate grounds and physically assaulted before he was pulled back out with the help of Greater Manchester Police and other protesters. According to the PRC, Chinese officials were acting in self-defence as the protesters illegally entered and endangered the security of the premises of the consulate general, but this account of the situation was contradicted by Manchester police and video footage of the incident.
The clashes were considered as an attack on protesters exercising their right of protest and drew cross-party condemnation.
- In 2023 the head of MI5 stated that more that 20,000 people in the UK have been approached covertly online by Chinese spies. The heads of US, UK, Australian, Canadian and New Zealand security agencies appeared together at the Five Eyes Alliance in California to warn of commercial secrets being obtained by China.
- Col Philip Ingram [a former Army Intelligence officer stated that “Quantifying the number of Chinese intelligence sources in the UK is impossible.” UK Intelligence sources believe that Chinese agents are active in academia, among both students and lecturers, and in business and the arts.
- The UK’s Domestic Intelligence Service has alleged that a woman suspected of working on behalf of China’s Communist Party had sought to improperly influence members of Parliament.
