Chinese mega-embassy in London approved by UK government | BBC News - video Dailymotion

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Plans for a huge Chinese embassy in London have been approved by the UK government after years of debate over security risks.   The decision is "now final unless it is successfully challenged in court", the UK Housing Secretary Steve Reed has said.   Conservative MP Iain Duncan Smith said granting permission for the embassy is a "terrible decision" that "ignores the brutality of the Chinese Communist Party".   "National security is our first concern," the UK government said and added that intelligence agencies "have been involved throughout the process".   Subscribe here: http://bit.ly/1rbfUog    For more news, analysis and features visit: www.bbc.com/news    #UK #China #BBCNews

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00:00the british government has given approval for china to build a huge new embassy in central

00:05london subject to some conditions the decision had been delayed twice over national security

00:10concerns the site is near london's financial district and some politicians fear it could

00:15be used as a base for spying the approval was announced before an expected visit to china by

00:20prime minister kia starmer in the last hour the head of britain security service mi5 has said

00:25it's not realistic to expect to be able to eliminate each and every potential risk linked

00:30to the new embassy well our political correspondent damien grammaticus has this update the indications

00:36had been despite all of the arguments and the controversy around this plan uh the indications

00:42had been that the government was minded to approve it and the biggest signal we got of that was late

00:47last year when downing street uh kind of indicated that the security services had the uk security

00:55service had looked at this plan and had not raised any objections and that was crucial

00:59because the a lot of the objections revolve around the positioning right next to the tower of london

01:06a very sort of prominent site this huge building that once housed the royal mint where the national

01:11currency was made but also that site is right next to routes that carry underground data cables for the

01:18city of london there was a concern about china being able to access those from the premises what we've

01:24got now the planning decision from the uh housing secretary steve reed so who in his job as housing

01:32secretary the government brought this decision in house they took it away from the local council who'd

01:36already rejected it once and the decision we've just had is that the uh government is approving

01:43this plan to go ahead for this what's been called mega embassy uh subject it says to some conditions i've

01:51just been looking through trying to read those conditions i haven't got through to all of them

01:54but some of them relate to some of the concerns that have been raised uh that this site it's a this

02:00very prominent site is right opposite the tower of london it's a very busy tourist part of london

02:05and local residents whose houses actually would form part of the site and adjacent to it

02:12have been very worried about the fact that it will be it will protests will happen in the area

02:17those who are opposed to the chinese communist government and so groups like tibetans pro-democracy

02:24campaigners hong kongers in exile and that there will be large possible large demonstrations and

02:29security risks some of the conditions here are around how what would have to be done in the area

02:36in the kind of modeling landscaping of the area to deal with those protests and security risks that's

02:41part of the the uh what has been the conditions approved i haven't got to the other conditions yet but

02:47the important thing with all of this i think is that this is a very politically sensitive decision

02:52for the government here because of the opposition from the conservatives from the liberal democrats

02:57from reform uk from all of the opposition parties who said that this shouldn't go ahead because the

03:02security risks to china accessing underground cables the fact that it would give china uh such a huge

03:09prominent site in the heart of london and that this could become a base for spying operations and

03:15influence operations targeting chinese dissidents abroad the uk government's position had been that

03:21well it's better to have china all on one site uh all its diplomats and uh representing london

03:27operating from one site uh and that the security risks that appeared could be managed so it seems that

03:32the uh the housing secretary has looked at the results of there was a whole planning inquiry he's looked

03:38at the results of that he said he agrees with the planning inspector and he has approved this to go ahead

Chinese mega-embassy in London approved by UK government | BBC News

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