La Casa Bianca avverte il Regno Unito di non consentire l’ambasciata cinese vicino alla città

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*Caroline Wheeler, Political Editor, June 7 2025, The Sunday Times*

The White House has warned Downing Street against allowing a Chinese embassy to be built near sensitive London financial centres.

The plan for the “super-embassy” was blocked by the previous government amid British intelligence warnings about its location and the espionage risk, but has been revived after personal lobbying from China’s President Xi.

However, fresh security concerns have been raised about the complex at Royal Mint Court because of its proximity to a sensitive hub of critical communication cables that could be susceptible to attack. The proposed site lies directly between financial hubs in the City and Canary Wharf and close to three significant data centres.

A senior US official said: “The United States is deeply concerned about providing China with potential access to the sensitive communications of one of our closest allies.”

Britain is locked in talks with the US about how to implement the trade deal that was signed last month. They have until July 9 to agree a deal to avoid UK steel producers being hit with a new 50 per cent import tariffs.

Asked what impact approving the super embassy would have on the US trade deal, the White House official appeared to issue a veiled threat, saying: “The United States expects that all decisions will be taken with our (both US and UK) national security interests in mind and after thorough mitigation as recommended and approved by counterintelligence professionals.”

It is understood President Trump has previously urged Sir Keir Starmer to deny permission for the super embassy and the issue has been raised in the trade negotiations. Diplomats say the Trump administration would have reservations about sharing intelligence with the UK if the embassy opened.

It comes after a memo was passed to the United States’ National Security Council by members of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (Ipac). The memo claimed the “dark cabling” under the embassy site “feeds the City of London” — the heart of UK financial services.

John Moolenaar, the Republican head of the House of Representatives’ China committee, said: “If reports are accurate, placing a PRC embassy of unprecedented size over sensitive cabling that supports US and UK financial systems would pose an unacceptable risk to our institutions. The Chinese Communist Party has a clear track record of targeting critical infrastructure.

“This development would raise serious concerns in the United States and could be viewed as an act of strategic overreach by Beijing and a curious error in judgment by London.”

Luke de Pulford, executive director of Ipac, said: “The Chinese mega-embassy has become a flashpoint in UK-US trade talks and it’s staggering that the White House had to publicly confirm the cabling risk just to defend its own financial system. It’s time to send Xi Jinping a clear message: no matter the pressure or coercion, the UK and US won’t trade away national security, and this embassy isn’t happening.”

Beijing has been trying to redevelop former Royal Mint buildings near the Tower of London since it bought the site in 2018. It is understood Wang Yi, the Chinese foreign minister, raised the issue with David Lammy, the foreign secretary, during a visit to London this year. President Xi had earlier done the same in a call with Starmer.

The planning decision for the embassy, which would be China’s largest in Europe, was called in by Angela Rayner, the housing secretary, last year. The plan was initially refused by Tower Hamlets council in 2022.

Within a fortnight of Rachel Reeves returning from an official visit to China this year, both Scotland Yard and Tower Hamlets council dropped their objections to the project. On Monday three of Trump’s leading aides will meet with their Chinese counterparts in London for talks aimed at resolving a trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies that has kept global markets on edge.

The Treasury secretary Scott Bessent, the commerce secretary Howard Lutnick and the trade representative Jamieson Greer will represent the United States in the talks, Trump announced in a post on his Truth Social platform without providing further details.

China’s foreign ministry said yesterday that the vice-premier He Lifeng will be in the UK between June 8 and 13, adding that the first meeting of the China-US economic and trade consultation mechanism would be held during this visit.

Priti Patel, the shadow foreign secretary, said: “China is a dangerous threat to the national and economic security of our country. We never supported this proposal and we stand firmly against Labour’s plans to build a Chinese super embassy in the heart of our great city. We have said from the outset, we would never put our financial centre or country at risk, which is what Labour are doing, so they can have a political press release gloating on taking money from the Chinese.”

A Chinese embassy spokesman has previously dismissed the espionage claims, saying: “Anti-China elements are always keen on slandering and attacking China.”

A government spokesman said: “Applications for a new Chinese embassy in Tower Hamlets have been called in for ministers to decide. A final decision will be made in due course.”

He makes a fair point. In fact, we can go further. In this modern age where everything can be done online, why does *any* country need a super-embassy? Beyond a nice office and meeting space to meet, greet, and parlay with fellow diplomats from the host and other countries, pretty much everything *could* be done online.

Don’t forget now:

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9233383/Boris-Johnsons-senior-aide-conflict-row-Chinese-Embassy-deal.html

Mind your own business America – rest of the world.

It’s not like America doesn’t do aggressive corporate espionage on the rest of the world anyway. Weren’t they tapping Merkel’s phone?

I agree. We should not be letting them open an embassy in this location. I imagine if the UK or US tried to do the same thing in China, it would be denied.

They are making it very clear that it is the US itself that is the authoritarian, bullying country, not China. Kinda ironic, isn’t it. They are the ones trying to exert influence on foreign nations, telling them what they shoudl and shouldn’t do.

Spying? Guess people don’t remember the US spying episide on Merkel and others
[https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/us-security-agency-spied-merkel-other-top-european-officials-through-danish-2021-05-30/](https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/us-security-agency-spied-merkel-other-top-european-officials-through-danish-2021-05-30/)

Why does America get a massive one then… How come we’re ok with America and it’s building full of spies but not China’s?

I imagine our own are just the same over there too