Many Britons are unhappy about the Chinese super-embassy/super-headquarters for espionage and transnational repression that the UK government is helping the CCP to build in London. The stalled project is back on track thanks to the Starmer regime’s eagerness to appease the Chinese Communist Party.
Some U.S. officials observing the prospect aren’t too happy about it either (“US Lawmakers Express Concern About China’s ‘Super-Embassy’ in London,” The Epoch Times, February 26, 2025).
Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), a senior member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.), chair of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), said that allowing China to build what they called a “super-embassy” on the site of the Royal Mint Court in London would be a “counterproductive and unearned reward.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is scheduled to meet with President Donald Trump in Washington on Feb. 27. The two lawmakers wanted [British Ambassador to the U.S. Peter Mandelson] to convey their concerns to Starmer during his stay in the United States….
If completed, the new Chinese Embassy would be 10 times the size of China’s current embassy at London’s Portland Place and almost twice that of the Chinese Embassy in Washington. It would also be China’s biggest mission in Europe….
In a post on social media platform X on Feb. 17, Conservative MP Iain Duncan Smith said it would be the “biggest act of ‘kowtowing’ in British history” and a “nightmare” if China were allowed to proceed with its plans.
Chis Smith and John Moolenaar argue that if China gains “such a prominent diplomatic foothold in the UK,” the totalitarian regime will only be emboldened in its efforts “to intimidate and harass UK citizens and dissidents and experts across Europe who oppose or criticize its policies. China’s transnational repression operations are well-documented in the UK and throughout Europe.”
The U.S. congressmen also discuss the threat of the CCP’s “malign influence operations.”
An example of CCP intimidation and harassment within the United Kingdom is what happened in October 2022 to Hongkonger Bob Chan, a pro-democracy activist who was dragged away from a protest in Manchester by members of the Chinese Consulate General, then beaten up on consulate grounds—with the consul general at the time, Zheng Xiyuan, taking the lead.
In the UK, the U.S., around the world, this kind of thing is typical of the Chinese Communist Party and the CCP henchmen sometimes called diplomats.
Also see:
The Guardian: “Chinese diplomat involved in violence at Manchester consulate, MP says”
“Footage posted online shows a person, believed to be Zheng [Xiyuan], who is a veteran Chinese Communist party (CCP) official, kicking down a poster and pulling the hair of a protester, who was then dragged inside the consulate grounds and beaten.”
Far from denying his culpability, Zheng later told an interviewer that it had been his “duty” to pull the protester’s hair because the protesters had been abusing his country and his leader.
Washington Post: “How China extended its repression into an American city”
“Chinese diplomats and pro-China diaspora groups based in the United States organized demonstrations in San Francisco that harassed and silenced protesters opposed to Beijing’s policies, including through violence, during Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s visit to the city in November, a six-month investigation by The Washington Post shows….
“[The events in San Francisco are] part of a broader global pattern of China attempting to reach beyond its borders and suppress parts of its diaspora advocating against the CCP and ongoing rights abuses in Tibet, Xinjiang, Hong Kong and mainland China, the U.S. government and human rights groups say.”
