A Chinese bid for a “super embassy” on the site on the old Royal Mint near Tower Bridge was blocked amid a growing rift between Westminster and Beijing. The Tower Hamlets council voted unanimously to reject planning permission for the new multi million pound development in the heart of central London.
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The decision comes in the same week that UK prime minister Rishi Sunak declared that the “golden era” of good relations with China was over, 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. The 700,000 square feet site was acquired by China for more than £255 million in 2018, covering multiple buildings on a plot of land just north of the Thames. Beijing’s planned presence there would be ten times the size of its current embassy in Marylebone, Telegraph reported.
The development has stirred up huge controversy because of concerns about China’s human rights record after pro-democracy protesters were beaten outside the Chinese consulate in Manchester in October.
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This incident was raised by opponents of the “super embassy” development at the planning stage, as well as concerns that the building could become a “secret police station”.
In the last week, protests have erupted across China during which a BBC presenter was beaten up by police and subsequently jailed.
Rishi Sunak called the incident “shocking and unacceptable” to which Zhao Lijan, deputy director of China’s ministry of foreign affairs replied by saying that Britain was involved in a “hypocritical practice of double standards” and said there had been “a serious distortion of the facts and constitute a grave interference in China’s internal affairs.”
