In a keynote speech the director-general of MI5, Sir Ken McCallum, made it very clear that the Chinese state presents a UK national security threat [along with Russia and Iran]. He talked about a ‘new era’ of ‘record volumes of terrorist investigations and fast-rising state threats’
The proposed new Chinese embassy, therefore, has become a huge problem for MI5/MI6 and the government. The new site is at Royal Mint Court near the Tower of London and is 20,000 square metres – which would make it the biggest embassy in Europe. The new deadline for a decision on the new embassy is the 10th December 2025.
This planning application seems to have created two big issues:
- The site could potentially allow China to infiltrate the UK’s financial system by tapping into nearby fibre optic cable which carries sensitive data for firms in the City of London
- In the planning documents for the embassy some rooms have been blanked out for ‘security reasons’
The security services have warned that this mega-embassy would create a hub for China to expand its “intelligence-gathering and intimidation operations”.
Lin Jian, a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, obviously responded with the usual thuggish and sinister threat – “China had acted with “the utmost sincerity and patience” and the UK should “immediately fulfil its obligations and honour its commitments otherwise the British side shall bear all consequences”.
