Beijing wanted embassy approval before Starmer visit

By Andrew MacAskill, Kate Holton and Ben Blanchard

Reuters News – 20 January 2026

By approving China's plans for a mega-embassy in London, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has gambled on winning closer trade ties and investment from China at the risk of angering politicians in Britain and the United States. Beijing's desire to build China's biggest embassy in Europe in the heart of historic London had become a flashpoint in relations, testing Britain's ability to navigate the security risks and trade potential of a relationship with China. The government ignored warnings from British and U.S. politicians, local residents and British-based Hong Kong pro-democracy campaigners who said the new building could be used as a base for espionage and to intimidate Chinese dissidents.

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China has 146 registered diplomats in Britain, second to the United States, British government records show. Opponents of China's plans to build a much bigger embassy say it will mean more diplomatic staff and therefore more spies, with the new site serving as a symbol of China's power and as a warning. Local residents said they would seek a legal challenge, saying Tuesday's decision would be unlawful if British officials privately gave China assurances the project would be approved before the planning process had been completed.

Six current and former British officials told Reuters most of the espionage fears were exaggerated or could be managed. They said the consolidation of China's existing diplomatic premises, spread across London, could make it easier to track suspected spies.

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China's embassy in London has accused British officials of exaggerating fears about Chinese spies and cyberattacks.

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Starmer is expected to travel to China this month, alongside a business delegation, after Beijing made clear the trip was conditional on approval for the new embassy, British and Chinese officials said. Approval of the new embassy could leave Starmer vulnerable to criticism in Britain and alienate London's most powerful ally when opinion polls suggest he is Britain's least popular prime minister.

In a parliamentary debate last week, 30 members of the chamber spoke out against the embassy expansion plans. None spoke in favour. Julian Lewis, a former chair of parliament's intelligence committee, said that in almost three decades in parliament he had never seen such an occasion 

"where every question asked on both sides of the House was deeply hostile".

Mike Johnson, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, is among U.S. politicians who have raised concerns about the embassy expansion. Nicholas Eftimiades, a former U.S. intelligence officer and specialist on Chinese intelligence, said British security services might be underestimating the risks.

"The US has intelligence capabilities several orders of magnitude larger than the UK and yet is unable to effectively counter China's intelligence collection,"

he said.

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