MI5 ‘very relaxed’ about proposed Chinese super-embassy in London, sources say

Original article by Eleni Courea, Dan Sabbagh and Amy Hawkins

MI5 officers told the House of Commons speaker at a private meeting that they can tackle the risks of a proposed Chinese super-embassy in London, opening the door to its approval.

The Guardian understands that in a meeting held with Lindsay Hoyle in the summer, senior figures from the Security Service indicated they were “very relaxed” about the prospect of a 20,000 sq metre embassy being constructed at Royal Mint Court near Tower Bridge.

It is considered that the espionage risks stemming from the large outpost can be managed. China has long had a diplomatic presence in the UK, with its existing embassy on Portland Place dating back over a century.

Keir Starmer is planning to travel to China for his first bilateral visit in January or February next year, according to several people briefed on the plans, but insiders believe that any trip is contingent on the embassy being greenlit next month.

In October, when asked about the espionage risk posed by the new embassy, Ken McCallum, the spy agency’s director general, indicated the Security Service believed the development was something it could deal with.

“MI5 has more than a century of experience of dealing with the national security risks, which do flow from the presence of foreign embassies on British soil,” he said.

“This is something which you would expect MI5 to have a view on. You would expect us and GCHQ and others to have deep expertise around.”

The Security Service will not disclose details of the advice it has given to ministers as the planning decision nears, but it is understood that its opinions will have been passed up to the Home Office, its sponsor department.

A government source said the message that the security services were relaxed about the proposed development had been communicated to ministers. A spokesperson for the Commons speaker declined to comment.

Opponents of the project have cited security concerns, including regarding the presence of cables beneath the site connecting to the City of London, as a reason it should be rejected.

There are also concerns about the traffic and safety implications for local residents, and critics have questioned the optics of allowing China to build its biggest diplomatic outpost in London.

However, a former senior British intelligence officer said that, while it was well-known that “embassies are nests for spies”, their location “also presented an opportunity” for potential surveillance.

Ministers are weighing up whether to approve the super-embassy by 10 December, having already pushed back the decision twice.

The delays have drawn the ire of the Chinese government, which demanded last month that the UK “immediately fulfil its obligations and honour its commitments otherwise the British side shall bear all consequences”.

Beijing is blocking extensive renovation works at the British embassy in Beijing while the fate of its own embassy building in London is being decided.

The Guardian disclosed that Boris Johnson, while he was foreign secretary, wrote to his Chinese counterpart in 2018 saying he was “committed to ensuring that our projects develop alongside each other”.

Richard Moore, who stepped down as chief of MI6 in September, indicated in a series of interviews this month that a compromise was likely to be reached.

“I’m sure there has to be a way through where they get an appropriate embassy and we are allowed to retain and develop our own, excellent embassy in Beijing,” he told Bloomberg.

“We need [an embassy] in Beijing and it’s important that we have that, so it’s right and proper that the Chinese should get their embassy. Whether it’s this one or not isn’t really for me to judge.”

Nigel Inkster, a senior adviser at the International Institute for Strategic Studies and former assistant chief of MI6, said “the size of the embassy is immaterial” and that “it is far easier to monitor staff centred in one location rather than dispersed all around the city”.

Inkster added that many countries, including China, now avoid spying out of diplomatic outposts because the increasing sophistication of surveillance technologies had made such operations more difficult.

China also recruits people online. Earlier this week, MI5 accused two LinkedIn headhunters based in China of acting as fronts for the country’s powerful ministry of state security, seeking to recruit politicians and their associations.

An espionage alert was circulated to MPs and peers warning about the activities of two LinkedIn accounts under the names of Amanda Qiu and Shirly Shen.