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
00:12their 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?
01:02Yes. Well, there are a large number of rooms in the blueprints for the prospective Chinese embassy,
01:09which are grayed out. There's no explanation for these rooms. They are redacted and their
01:15explanation 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
01:28and refused 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 got to.
01:39Now, I understand that in their concerns, this new mega embassy will be a possible base for spying and
01:49or surveilling 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
02:20financial 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 grounds.
02:37So that's one reason. Another security risk is that we know from all of our observations of Chinese
02:44overseas interference activities, that where you have more Chinese state employees, you have more
02:49interference activities. And it's planned that there will be hundreds more state employees located in
02:55this site. We're very worried about that, given that we have recently 200,000 Hong Kongers come to the
03:00United Kingdom, many of which have been victimized by the CCP, and the Hong Kong authorities, even while
03:07they've been living in the UK. So we believe that the UK government should stand up for them, should
03:12protect them, and that we shouldn't expose ourselves to this huge security risk.
03:15Now, with what's currently happening, is this likely to strain diplomatic relations between
03:23Britain and China over the building of this embassy?
03:27Yes, 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
03:47the United Kingdom, Keir Starmer. So clearly, this is important to them. They want it. They want it as a
03:52huge status symbol for them, the largest embassy in Europe, in London. They're keen on it. And they're
03:58saying in Chinese state media that the big obstacle to normalizing relations with the United Kingdom
04:05is 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
04:16the United States, who raised concerns over the financial cabling infrastructure. So it's
04:22quite a difficult decision for the United Kingdom government. I think they're damned if they do
04:26and they're damned if they don't. Well, Luke, I guess we'll just have to wait and see what they
04:31do decide to do. Thank you so much for joining us on the program. That's Luke Pulford, co-founder and
04:37executive director of the Interparliamentary Alliance on China. And that's all we have time for
04:44in this edition. Stay with us here on France 24. We'll be back shortly with more news.
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