UK PM Keir Starmer to approve China’s ‘super embassy’ ahead of Beijing visit: Report

London, Nov 21 (PTI) British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is set to approve plans for a controversial new Chinese “super embassy” in the heart of London ahead of a proposed visit to Beijing in the new year, a UK media report claimed on Friday.  According to ‘The Times’, both the Home Office and Foreign Office are unlikely to raise any formal objections to the plan if appropriate “mitigations” are put in place to protect national security after the UK's domestic and foreign security services – MI5 and MI6 – gave their nod to the proposals.

The newspaper referenced a government source at Whitehall to say that the mega embassy’s approval was now seen as a “formality” and expected by December 10.  Starmer is also expected to travel to China next year as Britain seeks to bolster economic relations with Beijing, despite concerns that it is carrying out large-scale espionage against the UK, the newspaper claims.

If the visit goes ahead, Starmer will become the first UK prime minister to visit China since Theresa May in 2018.  China had warned of “consequences” for bilateral ties if its new UK embassy was not given planning permission. A decision on the country’s proposals for extensive development at the site of the historic Royal Mint Court, near the Tower of London, had been delayed repeatedly over security concerns, given that it is set to run above a vast web of fibre-optic cables used to carry information into the City of London.  China bought the 20,000 square metres of land at Royal Mint Court in 2018 for 225 million pounds and submitted plans to the local Tower Hamlets Council to turn the site into a much larger London embassy than its current location at Portland Place, near Baker Street.

After those were rejected and amid local protests, the government had “called in” the proposals for a review – a move reserved for planning applications involving issues of national significance.  Reports of the Starmer-led government's planned go-ahead for the plans come just days after Britain’s parliamentarians were warned against activities by China-linked agents to spy on them. MI5 had issued an "espionage alert", identifying two specific LinkedIn profiles of women carrying out activities on behalf of the Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS).  “This activity involves a covert and calculated attempt by a foreign power to interfere in our sovereign affairs in favour of its own interests, and this government will not tolerate it," UK Security Minister Dan Jarvis told the House of Commons earlier this week.  China has previously dismissed all espionage claims, with an embassy spokesperson saying that “anti-China elements are always keen on slandering and attacking” the country. PTI AK     RD RD