Is China’s Mega Embassy in London Actually a Spying Compound? | Luke de Pulford

The largest Chinese embassy in Europe is set to rise in the heart of London: a 20,000-square-meter complex at Royal Mint Court.

Local councilors rejected it twice. But the government approved it, and a High Court challenge from residents was dismissed this summer.

Standing against it is Luke de Pulford, founder of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC)—an international coalition of lawmakers opposing Chinese Communist Party infiltration.

Why does this embassy matter, and why should America care?

The site sits directly above fiber-optic cables carrying sensitive financial data between the City of London and Canary Wharf, Britain’s two main financial districts. The architectural drawings are also redacted.

“Nearly an entire floor is redacted, so we don’t know what the use of those buildings is, and some of those rooms are in the basement area,” de Pulford says.

“If the Chinese were able to, in some way, sabotage or hack this cabling. … They would be impacting any financial services from anywhere in the world who are located in those two financial centers, which of course includes the United States.”

MI5 lists China as one of the most serious national security threats facing the UK. So why was the embassy approved?

“It’s partly down to the leverage that China exacts, it’s partly down to the carrots that it dangles around economic opportunities, and it’s partly down to the blunt coercion it’s willing to mete out,” de Pulford says.

This episode looks at what can still be done to stop the project, why it’s being called the last line of defense, and what it takes to resist communist infiltration from within.

Views expressed in this video are opinions of the host and the guest, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.