Security concerns as China could build sealed ‘spy dungeon' in planned London mega-embassy without UK knowing
CHAMBER OF SECRETS Security concerns as China could build sealed 'spy dungeon' in planned London mega-embassy without UK knowing
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CHINA could build a sealed 'spy dungeon' in its planned London mega-embassy without the UK ever knowing, Tories warned yesterday.
Deputy PM Angela Rayner has given China two weeks to explain greyed-out and redacted areas in blueprints for the Cultural Exchange Building at Royal Mint Court.
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The controversial mega-embassy's blue prints
But senior Tory Kevin Hollinrake claims the request is 'pointless' because a planning agreement already gives it permission to build certain rooms with no UK inspection or oversight.
And legal documents show China is allowed to apply its own construction standards in areas exempt from verification.
Mr Hollinrake said: 'Ministers have deliberately stuck their heads in the sand over the clear national security threat posed by this mega-embassy.
'First, they ignored secret plans for an underground facility. Now they're effectively giving the Chinese Communist Party a green light to construct spy infrastructure or even sinister detention facilities.
"The Government must reject this planning application, just as Ireland and Australia have done with CCP spy hubs.'
Local Tory councillor Peter Golds has also sounded the alarm, asking why hundreds of pages of planning reports failed to mention the secret rooms at all.
He warned that public access to this information is a legal requirement, even for sensitive buildings, and said residents are demanding answers.
Human rights groups including Amnesty International and the China Dissent Network have said Chinese embassies have previously been used to monitor, intimidate and silence dissidents abroad.
Luke de Pulford, director of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, told The Sun: 'Beijing's approach to this application has been contemptuous from the beginning. They think they can stick two fingers up to the government's conditions and keep unusually large areas of embassy secret, exempted from inspection.
'If the Government caves on these conditions, which are an amazingly low bar, it will be nothing other than an act of historic capitulation.'
A final decision on the 20,000 sq metre site - which would be China's largest embassy in Europe - is due by September 9.
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