The United Kingdom is on the horns of a Chinese dilemma in the shape of a new giant-sized embassy designed for the heart of London. While the embassy would likely facilitate more Chinese investment in the UK’s struggling economy, it would also risk relations with the Donald Trump-led United States.
The controversy erupted after Labour Party Prime Minister Keir Starmer promised Chinese President Xi Jinping in a meeting last November that his government would help clear obstacles for a new Chinese embassy to be built at the Royal Mint Court. Prior to this, the Tower Hamlets Council had rejected the project application twice in 2022.
China’s Finance Ministry said on January 14 this year that China and the UK have reached 69 trade and financial agreements, which it projected will create about £600 million (US$744 million) of economic benefits for Britain over the next five years.
”We want to cooperate and trade with everyone around the world. Of course, we do, but that isn’t cost-free. It doesn’t come for nothing,” Tom Tugendhat, an opposition Conservative Party MP, told Asia Times during a rally against the new Chinese embassy project on February 8.
“You’re looking at the cotton out of Xinjiang, or you’re looking at the batteries and solar panels made by slaves, the question is: how much blood are you willing to have on your hands for cheap goods? We fought against slavery in this country 200 years ago, where we rejected sugar grown by slaves in plantations.”
Starmer’s moves to strengthen ties with China came at a time when Trump was reviewing America’s bilateral trade relations with the UK.
In early February, Trump said that he planned to impose tariffs on the European Union, which maintains a large trade surplus with the US. Trump said he had a good phone chat with Starmer in late January, and that bilateral trade issues could be worked out.
It’s unclear whether the mega-Chinese embassy issue will become a factor for Trump to consider in his tariff decision on the UK.
In goods, the UK had a trade surplus of £2.5 billion ($3 billion) with the US while the EU had a 156 billion euro ($161 billion) surplus with the US in 2023. But in both goods and services, the UK’s trade surplus with the US amounted to £71 billion ($88 billion) while the EU only had a trade surplus of 52 billion euros ($54 billion) with the US.
If the US imposes a 10% tariff on UK imports, UK exporters will have to pay £6 billion to the US Customs annually, based on the fact that the UK exported £60 billion of goods to the US in 2023.
London protest calling
On February 8, several thousand protesters, mainly from Hong Kong and some from Taiwan, mainland China, Xinjiang and Myanmar, rallied in front of the two-centuries-old Royal Mint Court, which was bought by China in 2018 as a potential site for a new embassy.
The new embassy and dormitory, if established, will be able to accommodate 250 staff members. The current Chinese embassy on Portland Street was established in 1877 by the Qing government and was the location of the detention of revolutionary Sun Yat-Sen in 1896.
As the pavements were not broad enough, some protesters stood on the roads. The Metropolitan Police sealed off some traffic lines but had some clashes and standoffs with the protestors during the rally. The police reportedly arrested two people for standing on roads and refusing to move.
“(MI5 Director General) Ken McCallum said that the number one espionage threat to our country is China,” Robert Jenrick, the Shadow Secretary of State for Justice of the UK and a Conservative MP, said in a speech at the protest site.
“When you have China stealing our intellectual property, spying on members of our government, sanctioning MPs and intimidating, harassing British citizens day in and day out, why would we allow them to have here the biggest mega-embassy and spy headquarters in Europe? No self-respecting country would do that.”
Iain Duncan Smith, another Conservative MP, criticized China for bullying all the countries around the South China Sea and planning to invade Taiwan.
Blair McDougall, an MP from the Scottish Labor Party, said if China wants to open an Embassy at the Royal Mint Court, it must close its “concentration camp” in Xinjiang, unfreeze the pension funds of Hong Kong people and release Hong Kong media mogul and activist Jimmy Lai from prison.
The Chinese government has said that there is no concentration camp in Xinjiang, but only educational facilities for Muslim Uyghurs to eradicate extreme thoughts and learn work skills.
McDougall mentioned “the frozen funds” as tens of thousands of Hong Kongers failed to withdraw their pension funds after moving to the UK. The Hong Kong government said these people’s British National (Overseas) visas cannot be legal proof of living abroad.
Last November, UK Foreign Office Minister Catherine West visited Hong Kong and met a Chinese foreign ministry official. She later told former RTHK radio host Stephen Vines in an interview that she had confronted the Chinese official about the imprisonment of Jimmy Lai, who is a British citizen.
”Britain is still denied consular access. Officials at the consul went to the trials, and we are aware of others who go regularly to see Jimmy Lai,” West said. “We were very pleased to see that his actual appearance in court was very…it was a relief to see how well he looked.”
Vines said the Labour government highlighted 3Cs – cooperate, compete and challenge, but it seems the focus is only on cooperate. West said she had a frank exchange with the Chinese official and stood firm on the UK’s liberal and democratic values.
Despite the lack of progress on the release of Jimmy Lai, UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves met with Chinese leaders in Beijing last month and signed various new cooperation agreements, opposition critics note.
Extraterritorial violence
At the London rally, Some Hong Kong people said they were concerned about a 2022 incident in which a group of staff members came out of the Chinese consulate in Manchester and attacked several Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters; one of the protesters was pulled into the compound and beaten up. The attackers have since left the UK.
Last year, three men linked to the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office (HKTEO) in London were accused of surveillance, harassment and attempting to break into the home of a Hong Kong person. While the court case was ongoing, Matthew Trickett, one of the defendants, was inexplicably found dead in a park near his home.
Safeguard Defenders, a non-governmental organization, said there were at least three Chinese ”police service stations” in the UK – in Croydon, Glasgow and Hendon.
In early 2024, video footage showing a group of pro-China activists harassing British pianist Brendan Kavanagh at a local train station went viral. The troublemakers were reportedly linked to Chinese spy Christine Lee.
Last December, Britain’s High Court said in a ruling that Prince Andrew, the younger brother of King Charles III, was caught up in an alleged spying case involving reputed Chinese agent Yang Tengbo.
The ruling said the prince had cultivated an “unusual degree of trust” with Yang – who was barred from the country on national security grounds – and was prepared to enter business dealings with the apparent Chinese agent. Yang has denied he is a Chinese spy.
The Towers Hamlets Council will hold a public inquiry for the Chinese embassy project from February 11 to 18. China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, will visit the UK in mid-February coincident with the inquiry.
Yong Jian is a contributor to the Asia Times. He is a Chinese journalist who specializes in Chinese technology, economy and politics.
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