UK Deputy Prime Minister Angela Raynor has a tough job. She must decide whether to approve the Chinese Communist Party’s openly dishonest request to be allowed to build a mega spy embassy complex in London “near key British infrastructure” (“A Secretive Embassy on British Soil: Will the Government Let It Happen?,” Leamington Observer, August 23, 2025).
The problem—not the real problem, but this is what is being called the problem—is that the blueprints which CCP officials submitted to the UK government have blank spots. The People’s Republic of China doesn’t want to reveal exactly what the controversial embassy and spy complex will look like or what kind of resources and activity it will be able to accommodate.
Among the redacted sections: “several internal layouts and basement areas.” But these gaps are unimportant, Raynor has been told.
The deputy prime minister gave Beijing two weeks to reveal the redacted parts of its plans. This deadline has passed. Was it a fake deadline?
China has flatly refused to provide any further information, arguing that it has already submitted sufficient detail.
The embassy’s planning agent, DP9, stated in writing that it was “neither necessary nor appropriate” to release more detailed internal layout plans. It said the submitted material “is entirely consistent with established planning norms”.
The refusal has prompted national security concerns, as the complex includes multiple basement levels near key British infrastructure, raising fears the site could be used for intelligence-gathering.
Rayner has now postponed her final decision on whether to approve the development until October 21, six weeks later than initially planned….
One senior security source told The Sunday Times earlier this year: “If you can’t say what a basement room is for, it’s probably a server room, or something more serious.”
The new deadline may also prove to be meaningless. But at a certain point the deputy prime minister or her government will have to make a decision. The decision will be a reluctant yes attended by grave reservations. The alternative would be to annoy the Chinese Communist Party.
The blueprints don’t matter.
Suppose Raynor shocks everybody by refusing to let the mega embassy and spy complex go forward unless she sees the complete blueprints. The CCP then presents them as asked. Everything shown in the plans is innocuous. No spy stuff at all. Only diplomat stuff.
Then what? Let all proceed because the CCP has managed to produce fake blueprints?
