LONDON (AP) — Britain’s main opposition leader joined a protest Saturday against China’s planned new embassy in London, days before a deadline for the government to approve or block the project.
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch urged the Labour government to reject the plans, saying the Chinese government had “harassed and sanctioned” members of Parliament and “abused British nationals connected to China.”
“We know that we have to stand up to the abuses of China. And what worries me is that we have a government right now that seems to be scared of China,” she told hundreds of demonstrators who gathered at the site, chanting “no China mega embassy.”
Politicians from several opposition parties addressed the rally.
After years of delays and legal challenges, the government has set a deadline of Tuesday to decide whether to approve plans for the largest Chinese Embassy in Europe on the former site of the Royal Mint, near Tower Bridge. It is widely expected to green-light the development.
China has complained about the seven-year delay in approving the project, saying the U.K. was “constantly complicating and politicizing the matter.”
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has stressed that while protecting national security is nonnegotiable, Britain needs to keep up diplomatic dialogue and cooperation with the Asian superpower.
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Approving the embassy would pave the way for a long-anticipated trip by Starmer to China, and an expansion of the U.K. Embassy in Beijing.
Opponents say the 20,000 square-meter (215,000 square-foot) Chinese Embassy complex, near London’s financial district and close to crucial data cables, will be used as a base for espionage and for the surveillance and intimidation of Chinese dissidents in exile.
Britain’s intelligence and security services have issued a series of warnings about Chinese espionage activity. In November, the MI5 domestic intelligence agency issued an alert to lawmakers warning that Chinese agents were making “targeted and widespread” efforts to recruit and cultivate them using LinkedIn or cover companies.
However, U.K. security services are thought to have OK’d the embassy development.
Some security experts say the risks are manageable and that the embassy has the advantage of consolidating China’s current seven diplomatic premises in London onto one site.
Ciaran Martin, the former head of Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre – part of the GCHQ intelligence agency – said that no British government would override the security services if they said that the project was too risky.
“Unless we want to sever diplomatic relations with China, the location of their embassy becomes an issue of practicalities, security assessments and counterintelligence operations,” he wrote in The Times of London.
