The British government on Friday extended the deadline until October to decide on whether to approve China’s plans to build the largest embassy in Europe in London after Beijing refused to fully explain why the plans contained blacked out areas.
China’s plans to build a new embassy on the site of a two-century-old building near the Tower of London have stalled for the past three years, because of opposition from local residents, lawmakers and Hong Kong pro-democracy campaigners in the UK.
Politicians in the UK and the US have warned the government against allowing China to build the embassy on the site over concerns that it could be used as a base for spying.
Photo: EPA
DP9, the planning consultancy working for the Chinese government, said its client felt it would be inappropriate to provide full internal layout plans, saying additional drawings provided an acceptable level of detail, after the government asked why several areas were blacked out in drawings.
“The Applicant considers the level of detail shown on the unredacted plans is sufficient to identify the main uses,” DP9 said in a letter to the government. “In these circumstances, we consider it is neither necessary nor appropriate to provide additional more detailed internal layout plans or details.”
The British government said it would rule on whether the project could go ahead by Oct. 21 rather than by Sept. 9, because it needed more time to consider the responses.
Luke de Pulford, executive director of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, a group with ties to an international network of politicians critical of China which revealed the letter, said: “These explanations are far from satisfactory.”
The “assurances amount to ‘trust me bro,’” he said.
The Chinese embassy in London expressed “serious concern” over the government’s response, saying that host countries have an “international obligation” to support the construction of diplomatic buildings.
“The Chinese side urges the UK side to fulfill its obligation and approve the planning application without delay,” the embassy said in a statement.
The embassy earlier this month said that claims that the building could have “secret facilities” used to harm the UK’s national security were “despicable slandering.”
