A Chinese bid for a “super embassy” on the site on the old Royal Mint near Tower Bridge has been blocked amid fierce opposition and a growing political rift between Westminster and Beijing.
In a shock decision, Tower Hamlets council voted unanimously to reject planning permission for the new multi million pound development in the heart of central London, despite advisers recommending the new hub be given the go ahead. Councillors normally follow these recommendations.
The move will pile more pressure on London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Housing Secretary Michael Gove, who have a six-week challenge period in which they could decide to call in the verdict.
Any public inquiry could take up to 18 months to resolve.
The decision by Tower Hamlets comes in the same week that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak declared that the “golden era” of good relations with Beijing was over and against a backdrop of the largest pro-democracy protests in China since Tiananmen Square.
Beijing’s new “super embassy” in London would be the largest of its kind in Europe and only around three miles away from Westminster.
Growing tensions between Britain and China make the "super embassy" decision highly politically sensitive.
A decade ago, David Cameron and George Osborne’s government welcomed Chinese investment and cultivated closer contacts with Beijing.
However, the Johnson and Sunak administrations have reversed this approach, stripping out Chinese technology from Britain's 5G network and expelling Chinese investment from our nuclear and semiconductor industries.
In the first major foreign policy speech of his premiership, Sunak this week said closer economic ties with China had been "naïve" and promised a new approach of “robust pragmatism.”
"We recognise China poses a systemic challenge to our values and interests, a challenge that grows more acute as it moves towards even greater authoritarianism," he said.
Chinese ‘super embassy’ blocked in London in blow to Xi Jinping -The Telegraph
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