The United Kingdom has approved plans for an expanded Chinese embassy in London. The redevelopment plan involves partial demolitions, remodeling, refurbishments, and alterations to different areas of the building.
“The Inspector recommended that the applications be approved and planning permission and listed building consent be granted, subject to conditions,” a letter from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government says. The Secretary of State agrees with the Inspector’s conclusions, the letter notes.
Several concerns about the embassy’s expansion remain, however, as the site will be near telecommunications cables. The Secretary of State “considers that site-specific matters linked to the identity of the proposed occupants, including in relation to national security, are capable of being material planning considerations,” the letter adds.
MI5 Director General Ken McCallum and GCHQ’s Director Anne Keast-Butler wrote in a separate letter to Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper that it “is not realistic to expect to be able wholly to eliminate each and every potential risk.”
“However, the collective work across UK intelligence agencies and HMG departments to formulate a package of national security mitigations for the site has been, in our view, expert, professional and proportionate,” the officials explain.
According to a report from The Telegraph, construction documents show a basement wall slated for demolition and reconstruction just over three feet from sensitive infrastructure. This proximity raises the risk of cable-tapping, a technique to intercept data by accessing light signals in fiber-optic lines.
Conservative Member of Parliament Nigel Huddleston, who also serves as the Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, condemned the embassy’s development. While he noted there are “significant national security concerns” with the site, Huddleston explained that the location also threatens “significant heritage assets,” primarily a Cisterian Abbey built in the fourteenth century.
