What’s mounting are the domestic politics of giving the go-ahead to an extra-large, extra-equipped Chinese Communist Party spy base, surveillance base, and transnational repression base. So the Keir Starmer administration is making a show of continuing to sift through all the apparently disturbing information about security risks and continuing to consult with all concerned parties (Associated Press, December 3, 2025).
The plans for the “mega embassy” on a huge site close to London’s financial district and sensitive data cables have been stalled for years. Critics have raised concerns that the building will be used as a base for espionage, and lawmakers from across the political spectrum have urged the government to reject the proposal.
Officials were due to make a decision on the embassy by Dec. 10, but the Planning Inspectorate said the deadline has been postponed to Jan. 20 to allow more time to fully consider it.
“The Home Office and Foreign Office have provided views on particular security implications and have been clear throughout that a decision shouldn’t be taken until we affirm that those considerations have been completed or resolved,” Tom Wells, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer told reporters.
The delay follows growing scrutiny on the British government in recent weeks over its handling of multiple allegations of Chinese spying.
Starmer’s government has denied accusations that it had interfered in the trial of two alleged Chinese spies in order to preserve ties with the Asian superpower….
China has previously accused the U.K. of “constantly complicating and politicizing the matter.”
Yeah, why complicate and politicize things? Just give the CCP everything it wants every day in every way.
In fact, there is nothing more to consider about the proposed mega embassy. It’s all been considered. Everybody knows what the problems are. But the Starmer camp’s first and overriding impulse is to submit to the Chinese Communist Party.
Possibilities
What will the final decision be? These are the options: 1) Go full speed ahead, damn the torpedoes, authorizing the embassy proposal as is. 2) Demand a minor modification of the plans as a sop to critics, leaving the mega embassy as CCP-envisioned essentially intact. 3) Tell the Party that it must start over with new plans for a new embassy about a tenth of the size of the envisioned mega embassy and in a different location. 4) Reject the mega embassy or any new embassy and send all CCP spy-diplomats currently in London and the United Kingdom back to the People’s Republic of China.
My guess would be number 2. Starmer will try to extract meaningless concessions, in response to which the Chinese Communist Party will scream bloody murder. A meaningless negotiation will ensue, during which the meaningless concessions demanded by Starmer will be moderated until they are even more meaningless. At this point, the CCP will grumblingly accept the new conditions and even say some nice things about happy shared golden future together. The Starmer team will formally approve construction of the mega embassy, which will then be used in all the ways that the protesters fear.
Possibility number 1 is also plausible. Around the time the Associated Press article quoted above was published, the BBC reported:
“Plans for a Chinese mega embassy in London could bring ‘security advantages’, the prime minister’s official spokesperson has said, despite security fears from opponents. No 10 highlighted the security advantage of consolidating the seven Chinese sites currently dotted around the capital….”
