Il governo ritarda la decisione della “super ambasciata” cinese

Let’s face it, we know exactly what they’re up to here, but it goes on anyway. I have personal experience with what I strongly suspect is Chinese espionage in the UK (happy to go into boring details if anyone is interested) and like most espionage, it isn’t James Bond shit. It’s really really boring and mundane. It isn’t just my weird experiences either, it’s literally been in the news. Chinese spies in parliament even. 

They’re going to do it anyway if they get their mad embassy or not, so just let them do it. Easier point of contact for _us_ to do counter espionage, and given our perilous position on trade, probably best not to piss off the Chinese government when it makes no real difference.

Oh for fucks sake, this thing is only an issue because the media keeps treating it like it is one. Yes, countries use embassies for espionage, this isn’t anything new. China uses her current embassy for espionage in the UK, just as the Russians, US or French do, or we do out of our embassy in China. Yet despite MI5 having said that the new embassy is fine, people seem to think they will use it to magically access cables or that it will be some sort of mini military base. The Chinese are building a large embassy with the primary aim of increasing trade and diplomatic links, which we need with the worlds 2nd power, even if we are hostile. If they wanted to send over more spies they could probably find cheaper and more discreet ways of doing it.

I feel a part of letting them build this is so our own intelligence agencies can spy on the Chinese spying and gather useful intel ourselves. But maybe that’s giving them too much credit

What do we gain out of giving it to them, exactly? Why can’t we just tell them to fuck off?

Are they giving us one of equal size in Beijing a stones throw away from a national treasure in return? Because at the minute, ours in Beijing is basically just a big house.