The BBC reports that the UK government has approved plans to build a massive Chinese embassy in London, but with certain conditions attached.
The embassy will be located at the Royal Mint Court near the Tower of London, covering an area of 20,000 square meters, which the Chinese government purchased in 2018.
The Chinese side believes that the current embassy premises in West London are no longer sufficient and that a new site must be found for relocation. The scale of the new embassy is estimated to be more than ten times that of the existing embassy. There have been concerns from the public about surveillance and espionage activities related to the project's location.
The project was twice rejected by the local council, and the London city government chose not to intervene. However, after last July's UK general election and the Labour Party's return to power, the central UK government decided to exercise its authority to recall the embassy project for central review in mid-October of the same year.
In addition, according to a report from the Evening Standard on Sunday, China's new embassy will be located between the City of London and Canary Wharf, and it is close to three major data centers.
According to GB News, because the new embassy's planned site is near important communications cables, this has heightened US concerns about potential espionage activities and the vulnerability of critical financial communications infrastructure to attacks.