Plans For China’s Super Embassy in London Reveal ‘Secret’ Chamber

British prime minister Keir Starmer is expected to approve plans for China’s Super Embassy in London next week, despite concerns about potential security risks.

Not only is China planning to build a ‘super embassy’, but it’s been revealed that it also includes a “secret chamber”

The Telegraph has uncovered detailed plans for an underground complex below the vast diplomatic site in central London, which Beijing has sought to keep from public scrutiny.

An unredacted document shows an underground network of 208 secret rooms below the site that could be built alongside some of Britain’s most sensitive cables. Drawings show there will be a single hidden room alongside cables transmitting financial data to the City of London, as well as email and message traffic from internet users.

The new embassy would cover 22,000 square meters on the site of the former Royal Mint, making it the largest in Europe.

Labour MPs say permission for the embassy must not be given in coming days amid fears site could be used for espionage

The Standard reports: China’s controversial plans to build a mega-embassy at Royal Mint Court, opposite the Tower of London, are expected to be greenlit by ministers later this month after the Home Office and Foreign Office raised no formals objections on security grounds.

A government decision on the embassy being built has been delayed several times and is now expected on January 20 before Sir Keir Starmer is due to travel to Beijing at the end of the month.

But a group of MPs have sent an urgent letter to the prime minister to reject the development.

The plans are redacted in all publicly available versions, however The Telegraph has revealed the unredacted documents.

According to the newspaper, the plans show that China intends to demolish and reconstruct the chamber’s outer basement wall immediately adjacent to the fibre-optic cables.

The findings may reignite fears that Beijing may be attempting to spy on the network, potentially accessing sensitive state and financial information.

The Conservatives have urged ministers to block the development while MI5 warned MPs, peers, Government officials, parliamentary staff, economists, think tank employees, and others with links to Westminster that they may be targeted in a huge spying operation by China.

The Met Police has also expressed unease about protests that may take place at the site and the impact that would have on policing resources.

China has threatened “consequences” if its new embassy is not approved.

Alicia Kearns, the Shadow National Security Minister, warned that approving China’s new London embassy could give Beijing “a launchpad for economic warfare at the heart of the central nervous system of our critical national infrastructure.”

She added that “the unredacted plans reveal a concealed room running immediately alongside the fibre-optic cables critical to the City and Canary Wharf,” and questioned why the Labour Government is ignoring the clear security risks.

Backbench Labour MPs have also spoken out against the plans.

Sarah Champion, who sits on the influential national security strategy committee, called for Sir Keir to limit Chinese activity in Britain and “stand up to bullies” on the world stage.

On Tuesday Ms Champion said: “Multiple government agencies and government departments have raised concerns about the mega-embassy. Our international partners have raised concerns about it.

“Every security briefing I have had identifies China as a hostile state to the UK. I am in no doubt that this mega-embassy should not be allowed to go ahead.”

The prime minister’s spokesperson told reporters: “This is a quasi-judicial process and an independent planning decision will be made by the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government in due course.