Beijing Renews Bid to Move London Embassy, Make 10 Times Larger

An exterior view of the proposed site for the new China Embassy, on June 23, 2023. (Hannah McKay/Reuters)

Beijing has launched a new bid to build a so-called super embassy in London after a previous attempt failed last year.

The Chinese embassy submitted a planning application to the Tower Hamlets council, 10 days after Labour entered Downing Street, according to public record on the council’s website.

A previous application to turn the site of the old Royal Mint into the largest diplomatic base in the United Kingdom was rejected by the local councillors in December 2022 following a series of protests and incidents involving Chinese diplomatic sites.

The embassy failed to submit an appeal in time last year, and blamed the Conservative government for failing to intervene as the deadline elapsed.

In a letter sent to Tower Hamlets council’s principal planning officer Rikki Weir on behalf of the Chinese embassy, planning consultancy DP9 Ltd. argued the reasons for the previous refusal of the plan were “without merit and have no basis in planning policy.”

In 2018, Beijing purchased the site of the old Royal Mint, which is a short walk from the Tower Bridge, for 255 million pounds ($326 million) in 2018.

The building, designed by David Chipperfield Architects, is 10 times the size of China’s current embassy at Portland Place in central London.

Councillors were recommended to approve the plan to redevelop the site; however, they unanimously rejected the application on Dec. 1, 2022, citing “concerns over the impact on resident and tourist safety, heritage, police resources, and the congested nature of the area.”

The rejection followed a public consultation, in which a total of 51 objections were received, mainly concerning China’s human rights record and the proposed new embassy’s impact on local heritage sites and local communities.

Protests and Scandals

There were concerns that a high-profile embassy of the Chinese regime would become a regular protest site while some residents were worried that the massive embassy compound could be used by the communist regime as a “secret police station.”

In the days and weeks ahead of the council’s decision, Chinese diplomats faced a serious of protests and scandals, including a violent incident in the United Kingdom.

Chinese students protest outside the Chinese embassy in London, on Nov. 27, 2022. (Courtesy of Steven Leung)

In scenes that had not been seen since 1989, Chinese students gathers at the Chinese embassy at Portland Place and other sites across the United Kingdom—less than a week before Tower Hamlets councillors’ decision— to support the “white paper movement” in China, where widespread protests against the regime’s zero-COVID policies and censorship had erupted.

The protests also followed a violent attack by Chinese diplomats in Manchester against pro-democracy Hong Kong protester, Bob Chan.

Consul General Zheng Xiyuan (L) and other Chinese diplomats drag pro-democracy protester Bob Chan into the Chinese Consulate while a police officer was trying to pull him out, in Manchester, United Kingdom, on Oct. 16, 2022. (Hong Kong Indigenous Defense Force / Used by permission)

The incidents occurred shortly after the human rights nongovernmental organization (NGO) Safeguard Defenders exposed Chinese unofficial police outposts around the globe, including two in London and one in Glasgow, Scotland, which were established without the knowledge or consent of the host countries.

Missed Deadline

London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who has the power to overturn the council’s refusal, upheld the decision.

The Chinese embassy didn’t submit an appeal by the deadline of Aug. 10, 2023.

Just before the deadline for appeals lapsed, the embassy blamed the UK government for failing to intervene.

The embassy said it was ”the international obligation of the host country to provide facilitations and support for the construction of diplomatic premises” and urged the UK government to “fulfill its relevant international obligations.”

The government at the time said planning matters were “routinely decided by local councils” and that applicants had the option to appeal decisions if they wished to do so.

Commenting on the Chinese’s embassy’s new application, lodged on July 15, a spokesman for Tower Hamlets Council said in an email to The Epoch Times: “A new planning and listed building consent application has been submitted to develop an embassy on the site of Royal Mint Court. The planning team are reviewing the application and public consultation has commenced. At this stage we do not have a target committee date.”