The "super embassy" project refers to the overall project of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China to relocate its embassy in the United Kingdom from its current location in Portland Place, London, to the former site of the Royal Mint on the north bank of the River Thames, adjacent to the Tower of London, and to carry out large-scale expansion and renovation. The project was launched in 2018. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China purchased a plot of land of about 5 acres for about £255 million and planned to build a comprehensive diplomatic facility with a total floor area of about 57,000 square meters. After completion, the embassy is expected to become the largest diplomatic institution of China in Europe, and also the largest foreign embassy and consulate in the United Kingdom.
Since the plan was made public, its location and design have been controversial. As the base is close to the City of London and has underground fiber optic communication facilities carrying sensitive information, British and American intelligence agencies and some politicians have expressed concern about potential espionage activities and data security risks. In addition, some space uses were obscured in the planning documents submitted for review, which aroused concern among human rights groups and some Hong Kong communities who have moved to the UK, who believed that the site could be used for cross-border repression or secret detention of dissidents. Although the application was rejected by the Tower Hamlets London Borough Council in 2022 on the grounds of public safety and privacy concerns, the British government subsequently regained the approval authority and officially approved the project on 20 January 2026 after completing multiple rounds of diplomatic and security assessments. This decision is generally interpreted as a pragmatic choice made by the UK between national security considerations and maintaining and improving Sino-British economic and trade relations.
Background
The history of Chinese diplomatic missions in the United Kingdom can be traced back to the end of the 19th century. In 1877, in order to deal with the Sino-British diplomatic crisis and the Margary Affair, the Qing government rented 49 Portland Lane in the West End of London as its first representative office in the UK, with Guo Songtao serving as the first imperial commissioner. Subsequently, the building was leased by the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China, and had been in use for more than a century and a half by the 2020s. The embassy building at 49 Portland Lane mainly consisted of two Grade II listed buildings built in 1785. Although a large-scale demolition and internal renovation were carried out in the 1980s, its internal area was only about 6,000 square meters.
As China's diplomatic business with the UK increases, the existing embassy building is facing serious space shortages and administrative inconveniences such as the scattered distribution of multiple departments. Since 2013, the Chinese government has been seeking to change the location of the embassy. Liu Xiaoming, then ambassador to the UK, pointed out that the existing facilities could no longer meet the diplomatic needs of the new era. In 2018, China spent £255 million to purchase the former site of the Royal Mint, located opposite the Tower of London and near the City of London. The site has a long history and was once used as a plague cemetery, a Royal Navy facility and a coin mint. It covers an area of about 5 acres and can provide about 65,000 square meters of usable space, which is more than ten times the size of the old embassy. China plans to build the new site into a one-stop comprehensive office building, integrating visa, education, science and technology departments, and establishing a dormitory and cultural exchange center that can accommodate hundreds of employees to showcase its image as a major power in diplomacy.
Purchase and design Since 2013, China has been conducting site selection assessments in London to find a suitable location for setting up new embassy facilities. Finally, it selected the former site of the Royal Mint, which is located across the London Tower and has both historical value and a strategic location. The relevant transaction was completed in May 2018, with the Chinese government purchasing the land of about 5 acres from the real estate developer for about £255 million.
The architectural design of the "Super Embassy" was undertaken by David Chipperfield. The core concept is to combine the preservation of historical buildings with the functional needs of modern diplomatic institutions. The overall plan is to restore and expand several historical buildings on the site of the former Royal Mint, including preserving the appearance of buildings built in the early 19th century that are listed as Grade II listed buildings in the UK, while adding modern buildings on the site to form a fully functional diplomatic park.
The project covers an area of approximately 2.3 hectares, with a total floor area of approximately 55,000 to 65,000 square meters, which is about twice the size of the Chinese Embassy in the United States. The overall plan includes facilities such as the embassy office building, the "Cultural Exchange Building" and the "Historical Heritage Conservation Center". The design scheme particularly emphasizes the protection and reuse of the original Royal Mint historical buildings, and plans to restore and revitalize the Johnson Smirke Building and the Seamen's Registry, which have been vacant since 2013, while demolishing the annex structures added in the 1980s that are considered to be of lower quality.
According to publicly available planning documents, the new embassy will integrate China's seven current offices scattered throughout London, with functions including diplomatic and administrative offices, cultural centers, large underground parking lots, and residences, apartments and studios for senior diplomats. The embassy also plans to provide about 200 staff dormitories, ranging from open-plan to three-bedroom units, and includes a canteen, garden, and social and study spaces. To improve overall operational efficiency and security, the design proposes to build an underground tunnel to connect the basement spaces of the two main buildings, which will be used as a machine room, storage facilities and low-temperature service passage. In addition, since the site contains the ruins of the 14th-century St Mary Graces Abbey, the Chinese side stated in the plan that it will preserve and display the relevant archaeological remains and plans to open them to the public under certain conditions. However, for security reasons, visitors will have to undergo security checks similar to those at airports.
Despite some planning and architecture experts affirming the design's aesthetic and sustainability features, the project's underground facilities have sparked widespread national security controversy. Unredacted building plans show that the underground space is planned to have as many as 208 rooms, with a particular focus on a triangular concealed space beneath the Seamen's Registry building. This area is separated from fiber optic communication cables carrying critical data from the City of London by only one wall and includes a complex high-temperature air extraction system, raising concerns that it may be used to deploy high-performance electronic reconnaissance equipment or large computer servers.
British security officials also expressed concerns about the arrangement to open the site to visitors, pointing out that since the embassy site involves "diplomatic inviolability", in the event of an emergency, the police or rescue personnel may not be able to enter the relevant area in time, thus creating potential security and emergency risks.
Planning applications and disputes Since China acquired the site of the former Royal Mint Court in London for approximately £255 million in 2018, the plan to build a "super embassy" in the UK has triggered years of policy deliberation, diplomatic negotiations and public debate. Due to the large scale of the project, the highly sensitive location, and the potential national security risks involved, the relocation plan has gradually become one of the most controversial issues in Sino-British relations.
In addition to national security risks, the transparency of the planning proposal has also been questioned. In the application documents, the Chinese side "blacked out" a large number of room uses and internal configurations on the grounds of security, which led British planning lawyers and human rights organizations to worry that some spaces may be used for illegal imprisonment or cross-border repression of dissidents. When the planning application was first submitted in 2022, it was unanimously rejected by the Tower Hamlets London Borough Council because it was considered to have a potential impact on public safety, the surrounding community and the historical environment. Subsequently, the relevant decision was examined in a broader diplomatic context. It was reported that the Chinese side expressed strong concerns to the Conservative Party government, and after the Labour Party won the general election in 2024, the British government exercised its authority to "take over" the case and reinstate it to the central level approval process.
The controversy surrounding the plan is not limited to the impact of the building itself on the urban landscape and residents' lives. Critics pointed out that the site is close to an important communication node in the City of London and has key fiber optic infrastructure underground, which may lead to the risk of mass surveillance, economic espionage and damage to the security of critical infrastructure. At the same time, some Hong Kong communities and political dissident groups living in the UK also expressed concern that the facility could be used as a base for cross-border repression, thereby threatening their personal safety and freedom of assembly.
Despite the fact that local governments had repeatedly rejected the application on the grounds of public safety, and that cross-party members of parliament and some international allies had publicly opposed it, the British government finally officially approved the plan in January 2026 against the backdrop of warming Sino-British diplomatic interactions and the Labour government's intention to restart economic cooperation with China. Many media reports indicated that this decision was intended to break the long deadlock and pave the way for British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's visit to China later that month. However, the approval immediately triggered legal challenges, which further evolved the incident into a complex conflict involving geopolitical considerations, national security assessments and civil rights disputes.
Security and espionage concerns The new embassy is located near the City of London, a location that has raised widespread national security concerns due to its proximity to critical communications facilities. At the heart of the controversy is that the base is underlaid with multiple fiber optic cables that support global financial transactions and internet data transmission. Some politicians in the UK and the US have pointed out that the location could provide foreign governments with the opportunity to access and interfere with critical infrastructure, thereby posing a potential risk to financial and communications security.