Secret room to be built at Chinese embassy near cable lines, sparking widespread espionage fears
FOX NewsJAN 16
UK Set to Approve Large-Scale Chinese Embassy
Is China's London embassy a dangerous surveillance hub, or is opposition just media hysteria overriding legal process?
Above: View towards the proposed site for a new Chinese Embassy in the old Royal Mint Court building in London on Jan. 7. Image credit: Mike Kemp/Getty Images
The Spin
Government-critical narrative
Approving China's massive embassy near the Tower of London is a reckless security disaster that hands Beijing a surveillance hub right next to critical financial infrastructure. Secret underground rooms sit just meters from fiber-optic cables carrying City data, creating the perfect launch pad for economic warfare and espionage operations across Europe while threatening Hong Kong and Uyghur exiles with transnational repression.
Pro-government narrative
Finally, this project has the go-ahead from U.K. government officials. No U.K. security service has issued warnings about the site, courts require evidence, not speculation, and diplomatic premises operate under established Vienna Convention frameworks that Britain helped create and successfully manages worldwide. This will ultimately foster constructive U.K.-PRC relations.
Public Figures
Go Deeper
Establishment split
CRITICAL
PRO
© 2026 Improve the News Foundation. All rights reserved.Version 6.18.0
© 2026 Improve the News Foundation.
All rights reserved.
Version 6.18.0