US Lawmakers Express Concern About China’s ‘Super-Embassy’ in London

Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) speaks during a press conference about Hong Kong at House Triangle on Capitol Hill in Washington on Nov. 19, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

Two top House lawmakers expressed concerns about China’s plan to build a new large embassy in London, in a Feb. 26 letter to British Ambassador to Washington Peter Mandelson.

Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), a senior member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), chair of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), said that allowing China to build what they called a “super-embassy” on the site of the Royal Mint Court in London would be a “counterproductive and unearned reward.”

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is scheduled to meet with President Donald Trump in Washington on Feb. 27. The two lawmakers wanted Mandelson to convey their concerns to Starmer during his stay in the United States.

The Chinese regime first announced plans for a nearly 700,000-square-foot embassy at the Royal Mint Court, a historic site near the Tower of London, in 2018. The plans received a boost in January after the British foreign and interior ministers indicated they would support China’s construction proposal.

If completed, the new Chinese Embassy would be 10 times the size of China’s current embassy at London’s Portland Place and almost twice that of the Chinese Embassy in Washington. It would also be China’s biggest mission in Europe.

Beijing’s plans have also sparked some opposition in the British Parliament.

In a post on social media platform X on Feb. 17, Conservative MP Iain Duncan Smith said it would be the “biggest act of ‘kowtowing’ in British history” and a “nightmare” if China were allowed to proceed with its plans.

Smith and Moolenaar wrote in their letter that allowing the Chinese regime “such a prominent diplomatic foothold in the UK will only embolden its efforts to intimidate and harass UK citizens and dissidents and experts across Europe who oppose or criticize its policies.”

“China’s transnational repression operations are well-documented in the UK and throughout Europe.”

In October 2022, Bob Chan, a Hong Kong pro-democracy protester, was dragged from a protest outside the Chinese Consulate General in Manchester onto the consulate grounds, where he was beaten by staff members. Speaking to The Epoch Times in March 2023, Chan said he was indignant at Chinese diplomats’ behavior but felt “powerless to hold them to account.”

The U.S. lawmakers also highlighted a case of the regime’s transnational repression in San Francisco in November 2023, when organizations connected to Chinese consulates helped mobilize individuals to harass peaceful pro-democracy protesters during CCP leader Xi Jinping’s visit for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.

At that time, many of the pro-democracy protesters were injured due to violence committed by pro-CCP supporters, prompting two rights groups to call on the Department of Justice to investigate the CCP’s front groups in the United States.

The two lawmakers reminded Mandelson that the British government “is likely well aware of the Chinese Communist Party’s systematic effort to coopt social and business elites to advance its political and economic goals through malign influence operations.”

American and British authorities have also uncovered Chinese spy cases in recent years.

In September 2024, a former CIA officer was sentenced to 10 years in prison after being found guilty of providing classified U.S. national defense information to China.

In the UK, a parliamentary researcher and another man were charged in April last year with spying for China.

The CCP’s record of human rights violations in China and Hong Kong is another reason that the British government should reconsider allowing China to build the giant embassy, Smith and Moolenaar said in their letter.

The lawmakers pointed to British citizen and former media tycoon Jimmy Lai, who has been imprisoned in Hong Kong since December 2020.

“We know that Prime Minister Starmer has expressed concern about Jimmy Lai’s detention and promised to make his release a UK government ‘priority.’ We urge him to use his meeting with President Trump to coordinate efforts to gain Lai’s unconditional release,” the lawmakers wrote.

Smith and Moolenaar said they would be “happy to discuss” their concerns directly with Mandelson.