China is winning the battle to build a bold, potentially dangerous, new project in central London: the construction of a new “super embassy.” The complex, covering 614,000 square feet, will include offices, residences, and tunnels and is likely to pose a significant national security risk to the United Kingdom. A building of this scale—legally considered Chinese soil and beyond British oversight—could provide Chinese intelligence services with a myriad of espionage opportunities. Most alarming is the site’s proximity to sensitive communication lines and fiber-optic cables used in London’s internet network. If built, this complex could severely undermine UK national security as well as jeopardize intelligence sharing with the United States and the Five Eyes alliance.
Q1: Why is this a national security risk?
A1: The embassy’s strategic location in central London and its vast size pose significant national security risks to the United Kingdom, and likely also to London’s allies. While espionage at embassies is extremely common, diplomatic missions are typically constrained by their buildings’ size and location. However, this new 5.5-acre complex in central London sits atop sensitive communication and fiber-optic cables connecting the financial hubs of the City of London and Canary Wharf, which together form the world’s second-largest financial center and the nerve center of the city. If Beijing were to tap into these sensitive lines, it could potentially access a portion of the hundreds of billions of international data messages flowing through the area each day. Moreover, the embassy’s position directly atop fiber-optic cables also creates opportunities for fiber-cable tapping, which requires on-site, physical access to the cables. Despite ample space to build upward, Beijing submitted plans to include a large basement area, multiple underground rooms, and a tunnel connecting the Embassy House to a separate building on the embassy grounds. Underground facilities would facilitate clandestine access to fiber-optic cables and would likely house Ministry of State Security (MSS) or Ministry of Public Security (MPS) operation rooms and collection centers. Further, Conservative Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp warned that the embassy’s proximity to three major data centers could facilitate Chinese “espionage activities,” while the Tower Hamlets Council—the local authority with jurisdiction over the site—warned that the embassy’s location near a British Telecom (BT) telephone exchange could enable China to intercept and listen in on phone calls.
