Secret Room In China's Mega Embassy Plans For London Raise Security Concerns

 

London: The UK government’s own MPs on Tuesday raised serious security concerns in Parliament over China’s proposed “mega embassy” in the heart of London, as allegedly unredacted plans for the construction appeared to show a secret room in the basement.

According to UK media reports, Prime Minister Keir Starmer is all set to approve the proposed construction near the Tower of London ahead of a planned visit to Beijing later this month.

Sarah Champion, among nine Labour members of Parliament who have written to Communities Secretary Steve Reed to reject the new super embassy plans, raised the issue in the House of Commons to flag China as a “hostile state” that is “terrorising” people in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

 

“Multiple government agencies and government departments have raised concerns about this mega embassy; our international partners have raised concerns about it,” said Champion, who chairs the Commons International Development Committee.

 

“Every security briefing I had identifies China as a hostile state to the UK. I am in no doubt that this mega embassy should not be allowed to go ahead. Internationally, China is terrorising people of Hong Kong. It is terrorising democratic people in Taiwan and it is terrorising some people already in the UK.

“I want my government to stand up to bullies, not reward them. We need to be seeing rules, limits put in place around China to stop this behaviour, not rewarding them with the embassy that they so dearly want,” she said. In response, Housing Minister Mathew Pennycook declined to comment on a “live case” but stressed that there would be no compromise on national security.

 

"We need a consistent position on China which cannot be boiled down to one word. We recognise that China poses a series of threats to UK national security and we challenge these robustly," he told Parliament.

“China also presents opportunities to the UK as the world's second-largest economy and the UK's third-largest trading partner. We will therefore continue to develop a consistent and pragmatic approach to economic engagement without compromising our national security," he said.

 

The parliamentary intervention on Tuesday came as a report in 'The Daily Telegraph’ claimed to reveal detailed plans for an underground complex below the diplomatic site which has been “redacted in all publicly available versions”.

The drawings show that a single concealed chamber will sit directly alongside fibre-optic cables transmitting financial data to the City of London, as well as email and messaging traffic for millions of internet users, the newspaper reports.