UK has a 'number of security concerns' associated with China's prospective mega-embassy in London

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00:00The UK government has decided to delay a ruling on whether to allow the Chinese government

00:05to build the largest embassy in Europe in London after Chinese officials declined to explain why

00:11their building plans contained blacked out areas. Beijing's plans to build a new embassy on the site

00:18of a two-century-old building near the Tower of London have stalled for the past three years over

00:23opposition from local residents, lawmakers and pro-democracy campaigners in Britain.

00:30For more on this, we can cross to London and bring in Luke de Pulford, co-founder and executive

00:37director of the Interparliamentary Alliance on China. Luke, thank you so much for joining our

00:43program. So the British government has questions about this proposed embassy, one of them that's

00:52being these blacked out areas on the floor plans. Can you tell us a bit more about that and what the

00:58Chinese response has been?

01:00Yes. Well, there are a large number of rooms in the blueprints for the prospective Chinese embassy,

01:09which are greyed out. There's no explanation for these rooms. They are redacted and their

01:14explanation is not known. And Angela Rayner, the Secretary of State, made a request to the Chinese

01:21government two weeks ago for them to explain the use of these rooms. Yesterday, the Chinese responded and

01:28refused to do so. So this very modest request from the United Kingdom government has been rejected.

01:35There are other conditions, too. But on the rooms, that's the explanation of where we've gone to.

01:39Now, I understand that in their concerns, this new mega embassy will be a possible base for spying and or

01:49surveilling Chinese dissidents. What more can you tell us about that?

01:56Well, there are a number of security concerns associated with the prospective mega embassy. One of

02:01them is that it sits atop sensitive financial cabling infrastructure, which connects Canary Wharf to the

02:08City of London. So this isn't just a problem for the financial services of the United Kingdom.

02:14It's a problem for any country, including France, including many other developed nations who have

02:19financial services in London. The critical arteries connecting financial services institutions in

02:25London run directly under this site. We see that as a security risk. And it was reported that our

02:31security agencies, the first time the Chinese applied to develop this site objected on those

02:37grounds. So that's one reason. Another security risk is that we know from all of our observations

02:43of Chinese overseas interference activities, that where you have more Chinese state employees,

02:49you have more interference activities. And it's planned that there will be hundreds more state

02:54employees located in this site. We're very worried about that, given that we have recently 200,000

02:59Hong Kongers come to the United Kingdom, many of which have been victimized by the CCP and the Hong

03:06Kong authorities, even while they've been living in the UK. So we believe that the UK government

03:10should stand up for them, should protect them, and that we shouldn't expose ourselves to this huge

03:14security risk. Now, with what's currently happening, is this likely to strain diplomatic relations

03:22between Britain and China over the building of this embassy?

03:30Yes, and it already has. In fact, it's quite clear from narratives on Chinese state media that this

03:36is a diplomatic priority for China. It's highly unusual for a country to make such a priority of

03:41the location of the embassy. But Xi Jinping himself raised this in a meeting with the Prime Minister of

03:46the United Kingdom, Keir Starmer. So clearly, this is important to them, they want it, they want it as

03:52a huge status symbol for them, the largest embassy in Europe, in London, they're keen on it. And they're

03:58saying in Chinese state state media that the big obstacle to normalizing relations with the United

04:05Kingdom is this embassy. This has to be clear, this has to be sorted for China and the United Kingdom to

04:11normalize relations. So clearly, there's a lot of diplomatic pressure. But there's also pressure from the United

04:16States who raised concerns over the financial cabling infrastructure. So it's quite a difficult

04:23decision for the United Kingdom government. I think they're damned if they do, and they're damned if

04:27they don't.

04:28Well, Luke, I guess we'll just have to wait and see what they do decide to do. Thank you so much for

04:33joining us on the program. That's Luke Pulford, co-founder and executive director of the Interparliamentary

04:40alliance on China. And that's all we have time for in this edition. Stay with us here on France 24.

04:46We'll be back shortly with more news.

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