Its spies are alleged to have infiltrated the British Parliament, the American phone network and now even the Royal Family.
But soon China’s surveillance efforts may also extend to a housing estate near the Tower of London, where the authoritarian regime owns the freehold – including even a hair salon and a children’s nursery. And it’s next to this site where China wants to build its highly controversial “super embassy” complex.
While many leaseholders across the country have difficult problems with their landlords, those at Royal Mint Court feel perhaps most bitter of all. They worry that Beijing’s proposals to build the most extensive embassy in Europe, right next door to their homes, could leave them vulnerable to constant monitoring and potentially violent anti-regime protests.
Tower Hamlets Council rejected the scheme in 2022, but after Labour won the election this summer, the Chinese resubmitted their proposal. Following personal lobbying from President Xi Jinping, Sir Keir Starmer called in the plans, deeming them of significant national importance. Angela Rayner, the cabinet minister in charge of planning, will have the final say next year over whether the project should go ahead.
Some MPs are concerned that Starmer is pandering to Xi Jinping by considering the project in the hope of attracting more financial investment from Beijing for the UK economy.
Intelligence and diplomacy veterans have also warned of potential national security risks and dangers for the No 10’s relationship with the White House if the plans are greenlit.
For Dave Lake and his neighbours, however, the issue is far more personal.
Lake, a 70-year old retired engineer who has lived in his apartment for 35 years, recently welcomed The i Paper to the small residential car park that separates his building from what would become the embassy’s staff accommodation block. In some places they are less than 10 metres apart.
He worries that China’s human rights abuses and aggressive foreign policy could make the embassy a prime target for armed groups, especially given where it would be situated.
“Terrorists may want to use it as a status symbol, if they can cause disruption not just for a big country like China but in such a world-famous heritage location. Blowing something up in the vicinity of the Tower of London will create more of a headline for them,” he said.
Lake, who is chairman of the Royal Mint Court Residents Association, despairs that the homes could be seen as a vulnerable point in the campus’s security. While the other three sides of the site would be surrounded by tall walls, he says there would only be a wooden fence between the embassy and the flats.
He believes it would be easy for someone driving a bomb-laden truck to tailgate a resident into their car park. “Because of the close vicinity, our building would get flattened and whoever’s inside could be killed.” The residents association says people here would effectively become a “human shield”.
Homeowners and tenants think this will also lead to them being under intensive CCTV surveillance day and night. Lake’s living room window faces the potential diplomatic hub and he believes staff may be able to see into his home.
The residents worry that in time the Chinese would use this as an excuse to eventually force the residents out of their homes, to expand the embassy’s boundary. They are raising money on Crowdfunder to help pay for legal representation to fight the plans.
Police concerns
Tower Hamlets planners recommended in 2022 that the borough council should give consent to the scheme, but councillors on its strategic development committee voted it down.
The police remain opposed. Jon Savell of Counter Terrorism Policing pointed out in a letter to the council that in the space of two years, 47 demonstrations are expected to have taken place outside the current Chinese embassy in Marylebone by the end of 2024, including seven with more 200 protesters. Maintaining order at events like this at the new site would involve greater logistical challenges at higher cost, he wrote last month.
Chief Inspector Dave Hodges of the Metropolitan Police told a council meeting last week: “In the event that more than a relatively small number of protesters attend the location, they will highly likely spill into the road.
“This iconic junction of Tower Hill and Tower Bridge Road has over 50,000 vehicle movements per day and is of critical importance to the Tower Bridge river crossing.
“It is a major arterial junction, where any demonstration would have a serious and significant effect to not only the local area, but also wider London.”
The senior Conservative MP Sir Iain Duncan Smith said the residents are right to be concerned.
“There are British citizens who will be living, essentially within the compound of China,” he told The i Paper. “That is unacceptable, because they will be bullied by the Chinese to get out.”
He hopes the Government will take note of the police guidance. “This is a main arterial road to Canary Wharf, and it sits right across from Tower Bridge, a very important route out of the City and across the river or else towards Westminster. It’s a very difficult place to police any marches or any demonstrations which will end up blocking three roads at the junction.”
He added: “If they want a big embassy, go build one somewhere else… well away from the centre of London.”
Lack of confidence in government
The estate at Royal Mint Court was formally opened by the late Queen in 1989, the same year as the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing when the Chinese authorities cracked down on student pro-democracy protesters.
Lake accepts that the site should be redeveloped and he would be happy with a Chinese cultural centre opening there. But he says it’s the wrong place for an embassy, especially for such a divisive nation.
He grew more convinced that the Government will wave the plans through after watching footage of Starmer mentioning the embassy plan during his press conference with Xi at the G20 summit in Brazil.
The Prime Minister said to the President last month: “You raised the Chinese embassy building in London when we spoke on the telephone. And we have since taken action by calling in that application. Now we have to follow the legal process and timeline.”
Lake, who has supported Labour all his life, says: “It makes you feel like Starmer was saying, ‘Don’t worry about it, Mr President, I’ll sort it out for you’… It sounds like a done deal.” He adds: “I’m not holding any confidence that even a fellow Mancunian like Angela Rayner would come out on our side.”
Lake and other residents have attended meetings with the embassy’s minister counsellor, Yuzi Xia, who is in charge of the project. He says they claim to have addressed security concerns since the first application, but Lake says this is one of a series of “lies” being spread by China.
The Chinese embassy did not address the concerns raised by Lake when contacted about them and has described recent claims of espionage as a “smear” by those with a “twisted mentality towards China”.
In a statement issued after Tower Hamlets Council voted against the resubmitted plans, it said: “The resubmitted planning application for the new Chinese Embassy project has taken into full consideration the UK’s planning policy and guidance as well as views of all relevant parties. This is a high-quality development scheme.
“The professional report from the planning officers of Tower Hamlets has expressed explicit support to this planning application. It is deeply disappointing that the Strategic Development Committee of Tower Hamlets has once again failed to consider this planning application based on merits of the matter and relevant professional opinions.
“Not long ago, the UK central government has called in the planning application of the new Chinese Embassy project. Host countries have the international obligation to support and facilitate the building of the premises of diplomatic missions. It is hoped that the UK side will fulfil that obligation.”
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “Applications for a new Chinese embassy in Tower Hamlets have been called in for ministers to decide. A final decision will be made in due course.”
Officials privately underline that it is standard for any application affecting national security to be called in and this should not be taken as any indication of views on whether the scheme should go ahead.
