The Chinese government has resubmitted its plans to build a "super embassy" in London, a decision testing the new British government's strategy for dealing with China after the victory of the Labour Party in the general election last month.
According to the new plan, the super embassy will be built on the former Royal Mint Court site near the Tower of London, with a total area of about 576,000 square meters (620,000 square feet) — 10 times the size of China's existing embassy in London.
The project includes not only the embassy building but also 225 residences and a cultural exchange center.
The proposal was rejected by the Tower Hamlets Council in 2022 and was set aside after China failed to appeal in time.
Since China bought the land for roughly $327 million in 2018, the plan has faced ongoing opposition from members of parliament and local residents concerned about security, particularly as protests in the surrounding area could increase significantly.
A Tower Hamlets Council spokesperson told VOA the planning team is reviewing the latest application, and public consultation has begun, but a target committee date has not been scheduled.
Politicians and activists believe that China's choice to resubmit its plan is a test of the bottom line of the new British government's China policy. Former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith believes the Labour Party may not be as tough on China as the Conservatives.
"The Labour government has become ambivalent about China and has in no way seemed to be taking any interest in the threat that China is posing,” he told VOA in a phone interview.
With the Labour government coming to power in early July, the United Kingdom’s relationship with China is undergoing a process of re-examination. Foreign Minister David Lammy said the administration would conduct a comprehensive review of its relationship with China to ensure that it could cooperate with China in areas of common interest while addressing global threats.
George Robertson, the former NATO secretary-general and head of the British government's strategic defense assessment, warned that China was one of the countries that posed a deadly threat to the U.K.
The “Strategic Defense Review,” expected to be published in the first half of 2025, will help define the government’s defense policy for the next decade. The re-application of China's super embassy program will undoubtedly be a test in this review process and policy shift.
The Tower Hamlets Council is dominated by the Labour Party. According to The Daily Telegraph, representatives of the Chinese Embassy in the U.K. said in a document submitted to the district council that the 2022 refusal decision was baseless and urged officials to reconsider the plan.
"I have no doubt that this will be classified as a risk and be evaluated continuously by the Labour Party," said Rex Lee, a media spokesman for ESEA4Labour.
East and Southeast Asians for Labour was founded in 1999 with the mission of promoting the Labour Party’s values, civic conscience and duties, according to its website.
"The Labour Party has been clear in their support of Hong Kongers and Uyghurs and all others who try to hold the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] into account in human rights breaches. There is no space for CCP to maneuver under the Labour government," he said.
Megan Khoo, policy adviser for Hong Kong Watch, told VOA that the proposal “should feature in the new government's audit of U.K.-China relations, including how such an establishment would hold the potential to threaten the more than 190,000 Hong Kongers which now call Britain home.
“This site could serve as a vessel for the PRC's [People's Republic of China] increasing transnational repression against Hong Kongers and other Chinese dissident groups, and as such, has no place on U.K. soil. The new government must not allow itself to be toyed with and make it immediately clear that it will not allow the PRC to call the shots," she said.
VOA requested comment from the Chinese Embassy but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
The Royal Mint site has sparked many discussions about the preservation and safety of history, due to its historical value.
"It's a historic building, which would not lend itself to be an embassy," said Smith, the former Conservative Party leader. “It would be the loss of a historic building under the ownership of China. It would become Chinese territory forever, and that is not to be allowed. Certainly not the CCP."
In 2022, pro-democracy protesters were assaulted by Chinese diplomats outside the Chinese consulate in Manchester. Opponents of the new embassy site argue that this incident demonstrates China's intention to use the location to suppress protests, as the site offers limited space for demonstrations.
Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
