It’s a quiet, unassuming road that lies a stone’s throw away from some of London’s most celebrated landmarks.
But residents of Cartwright Street could soon be looking out of their windows to the balconies of Chinese embassy staff, if plans to build a new “super-embassy” in the area go ahead.
China is pushing forward with designs for its new diplomatic outpost at Royal Mint Court, a large plot in the heart of London, near Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. The imposing building, which currently lies empty, was once home to the facility that manufactured Britain’s coinage.
If the proposal goes ahead, China will invest several hundreds of million dollars into the building’s transformation, remaking it as the largest embassy in Europe. China bought the historic parcel of land in 2018, for around $312 million.
The plans have raised espionage fears, rattled locals in the area nervous for their personal security, and come at a time when bounties have been issued by Beijing for Hong Kongers in the UK. The UK has been a popular destination for many migrating from the former British colony, now a semi-autonomous Chinese city, where Beijing has cracked down hard on dissent over the past five years.
Barry, an insurance broker who did not provide CNN with a surname and works in the Royal Mint Court area, compared the Chinese takeover of the site to the UK government selling off the crown jewels.
“The building is such a UK monument… it was the Royal Mint. So to give that to a foreign government, especially the Chinese with everything that’s happening with the Chinese at the moment, is a bit of a joke,” he told CNN.
“Our office is just facing it, and we are one unit in a block of maybe 2,000 employees who work there, and I’ve not heard anybody say one good thing about it.”
After much government wrangling, Angela Rayner, the UK’s deputy prime minister and housing secretary, is expected to make a final decision on whether to green light the controversial plans by September 9.
In a twist last week, Rayner gave China two weeks to explain why parts of the blueprint it provided for the sprawling embassy site have been blacked out.
The letter, seen by Britain’s PA Media news agency, sets a deadline of August 20 for Beijing to give its reasoning for the redacted information.
CNN has reached out to China’s embassy in London for comment.
Beijing’s previous application for the embassy was initially rejected by the local Tower Hamlets council in 2022 on security grounds. Beijing resubmitted the application last year just weeks after Labour returned to power in the UK, in the hopes that the new government led by Keir Starmer would be more receptive to the request.
The empty Royal Mint Court had been due for redevelopment into a complex with shops, offices and a leisure center before it was bought by China. Since then, some 100 homes in the area have been classified as being on Chinese–owned land.
If the embassy plans go ahead, these properties will remain on Chinese land, although they will not fall under the embassy’s territory.
‘Soft border’ anxieties
Locals in an apartment block on western Cartwright Street could also find themselves residing adjacent to the embassy staff’s living quarters. Balconies to be purposely built for diplomatic staff would be visible from the block’s rear windows, CNN understands.
The Royal Mint Court Residents’ Association, which represents around 300 people living in nearby buildings and has engaged in a years-long battle against the plan, say they are fearful of how China could exercise its powers as landlord once the embassy is built next door.
The association’s treasurer, Mark Nygate, 64, lives on the estate just meters from the site. The parking lot of the block is separated from the proposed embassy site by a simple wooden fence, in what Nygate refers to as a “soft border.”
Speaking to CNN, Nygate raised concerns their Chinese landlords could carry out random searches of the properties, or residents could face accusations of spying. He explained, “I like to take photos. I’ve got an allotment, and I take photos of that, but the allotment actually runs along the border.”
Nygate continued, “So quite easily you could be taking a photo of something and they’re going to think you’re spying.
“Because they own our land, they are our landlords and therefore they have certain rights to get in (the properties). If they find something they’re not happy with, you can be damn sure they’re going to come and check us out.”
London’s Metropolitan Police has also voiced concern over any mass demonstrations at the embassy, warning that they could impede traffic and spill over into the roads, impacting tourist areas.
Protesters hold placards during a demonstration outside Royal Mint Court against the proposed site of the new Chinese embassy. – Chris J Ratcliffe/Reuters/file
China’s ‘long arm?’
Meanwhile, protesters and rights groups fear that the new embassy building could facilitate espionage and Beijing’s “long-arm” law enforcement, putting opponents of the Chinese government in the UK at risk.
One resident who lives near the embassy site told CNN the plans should not be allowed to go ahead. “It’s too close to Tower Bridge,” said the man, who declined to give his name. He also cited concerns over disappearances in Hong Kong.
China has previously been accused of using its outposts, in effect, as overseas police stations to monitor Chinese citizens abroad and coerce them to return home.
One such incident occurred in the UK in October 2022, when a Hong Kong pro-democracy protester was dragged into the grounds of a Chinese consulate in Manchester and beaten, in events captured on camera.
Subsequently, China removed six diplomats from Britain who police wanted to question in connection with the alleged beating.
But others with key stakes in the Royal Mint area have dismissed the espionage and bounty fears as “scaremongering.”
Mark Lahiff, a local property developer who serves as managing director of the UK’s subsidiary of Malaysian-based IJM, spoke in favor of the embassy’s establishment at a government hearing in London in February.
“This borough, Tower Hamlets, is one of the most impoverished boroughs in the UK,” Lahiff, whose projects with IJM include the Royal Mint Gardens aparthotel, told CNN. “For the People’s Republic of China to invest into this borough is a huge investment. That site in particular has been empty since 2008.”
He continued, “It’s a listed site in a strategic part of London, next to the Tower of London. We’ve been looking at it rotting away for decades, so to bring some life and vitality into this area, and the socio-economic benefits, are huge for the borough.”
But Nygate rejects the notion that Chinese investment would be advantageous for the area, saying that redevelopment would come at the expense of the residents living there currently.
“I’ve been against the embassy from the start,” he said. “It’s all about prestige in the end because they (the Chinese) want to outdo the American embassy.”
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