The UK government is expected to approve China’s plans for a new mega embassy in central London.
A final decision has yet to be formally made, but the advice ministers have received from intelligence agencies is believed to pave the way for the controversial project to be given the green light.
The long-awaited green light – first reported by The Times – will become the latest case study in the growing public debate over how wise a close relationship with Beijing is.
Approval or rejection of the planning application falls to Housing Secretary Steve Reed in what is known as a quasi-judicial decision.
But given the sensitivity of this decision, many others have been consulted, including MI5 and MI6.
The site at Royal Mint Court is close to the City of London and fiber optic cables that carry large amounts of highly sensitive data.
The embassy, with 20,000 square meters, would be the largest of its kind in all of Europe.
Some have argued that a single site, rather than multiple sites across London, may be easier to manage and there is awareness in the government that rejecting China’s long-standing desire for a new embassy could set back diplomatic relations.
However, Conservative shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel warned that approving the embassy would put Britain at risk, accusing Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer of being “desperate and unprincipled”.
Since winning last year’s general election, the Labor Party has sought to thaw the UK’s relationship with Beijing.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves, Business Secretary Peter Kyle and the Foreign Office’s most senior official, Sir Olly Robbins, have been visiting China.
The prime minister is expected to make his own trip to the country, perhaps early next year.
Asked about the prospect of traveling there, he told reporters on his way to the G20 Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, that no visit had yet been confirmed.
He said the government’s approach to China “is the same approach we have always taken, which is to cooperate where we can and challenge where we must, particularly on national security.”
Critics say the government is not sensible enough about what they see as a threat posed by Beijing, and argue for much greater caution in the UK’s relationship.
Dame Priti said: “It is incredible that Starmer is flying to Beijing just months after the case against alleged Chinese spies collapsed on his watch.”
He added: “Keir Starmer is so weak and our economy so precarious, the Labor Party feels it must kowtow to China at every opportunity, no matter the cost to our country.”
In September, a case involving two men – including a former parliamentary investigator – accused of spying for China collapsed under controversial circumstances. Both men denied any wrongdoing.
Prosecutors said the case was dropped because they could not obtain evidence of the government referring to China as a national security threat.
However, ministers insisted they were frustrated by the collapse and blamed the position of the previous Conservative government as well as outdated national security legislation.
Earlier this week, MI5 issued an alert to parliamentarians and peers, warning that they faced a significant risk of espionage by the Chinese state.
The alert said people working on behalf of China’s Ministry of State Security were posing as “headhunters” on platforms such as LinkedIn and targeting people working in British politics to obtain inside information.
China has rejected the espionage accusations as “pure fabrication.”
