China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian stated that if the British government does not approve China to build a new embassy in the UK, how will China resolve it? Lin Jian said that the British side has no spirit of contract, breach of trust and morality, and continues to delay approval for various reasons and impose arbitrary links, resulting in the continuous complexity and politicization of project approval issues. This is completely inconsistent with the British side's commitment to improving China-UK relations. inconsistent.
The situation is not complicated, and China already bought land in the old site of the Royal Coinmaking Factory near the Tower of London in 2018 and intended to move the old embassy from the Portland Tower.
That land has a long history and a good location, next to the City of London, but after so many years, Britain has not approved it.
The local council first rejected the application in 2022 for a variety of reasons, ranging from security risks, local protests to so-called human rights issues.
In October 2025, the British government announced once again that it would postpone the decision, delaying the ruling from October 21 to December 10.
This is the second delay.
The explanation given by the British side is that part of the planning drawings submitted by China have been blacked out for "security reasons" and the full version needs to be provided again. To put it bluntly, it does not trust China and is worried that this huge building covering an area of 20,000 square meters will become a "spy center."
Some public opinions in the UK are always exaggerating China's threat and network security, saying that "data cables close to the City of London" and "complex underground structures", and some people can even make up the picture of intelligence hubs.
Meanwhile, British media on protests, saying the new building was “threatening the privacy of residents.”
But such concerns are not based on evidence, but only on political sentiment.
Since the Labour Party came to power in 2024, it has been calling for the resumption of the cooperation mechanism with China, and now the approval of the embassy in the UK is in a standstill.
In fact, at the beginning of this year, Foreign Minister Wang Yi also visited the UK, held the 10th China-UK Strategic Dialogue with Foreign Minister Lamy, met with Prime Minister Starmer, and the two sides restarted the economic and financial dialogue.
At that time, the atmosphere was quite positive. Both China and Britain seemed ready to get out of the trough of previous years. Both sides stressed the need to maintain communication and deepen pragmatic cooperation. Even the post-Brexit economic policy hoped to make use of the Chinese market.
Not long after, things are back on the old road.
Lin Sword's words, in fact, reflect not only a question of the approval of the house, but the deficit of trust in the Sino-British relations.
China's purchase of land and shelters is the construction of normal diplomatic institutions, there is no special meaning, countries around the world are building or expanding embassies, Beijing, Tokyo, Paris have large-scale foreign embassies.
Normally, such approval of plans should not be postponed indefinitely.
Britain's approach this time actually localized, politicized diplomatic issues, and finally politicized them, which of course made us dissatisfied.
China has continued to promote China-UK economic cooperation in the past few years, and bilateral trade still maintains a scale of nearly 100 billion US dollars. The UK is China's third largest trading partner in Europe, and China is also the UK's largest trading partner in Asia.
This shows that the economic ties between the two countries have not been broken, but mutual trust at the political level is weakening.
Lin Jian said that the British side was "dishonest and immoral", which actually hit the point.
The most frightening thing about diplomatic relations is the repeated uncertainty of today and tomorrow.
Britain once hoped to be the entrance of Chinese capital and talents in Europe, but now it frequently sets up obstacles for security reasons, such as Huawei 5G, Confucius Institute, and the approval of new museums. The same logic-accept first, then hesitate, and then retreat.
This kind of repetition, in China's view, is a disrespect for the spirit of contract.
The basis of cooperation between the great powers is mutual trust, without mutual trust, and even an embassy can become a security hazard.
The question now is, who is to blame if the British side really keeps dragging down?For China, the London New Hall is not a non-constructed face issue, but rather a matter of safeguarding the right to the normal operation of diplomatic institutions.
If even such legitimate demands are not respected, any commitment to bilateral cooperation and trust becomes pale.
The situation is not complicated, and China already bought land in the old site of the Royal Coinmaking Factory near the Tower of London in 2018 and intended to move the old embassy from the Portland Tower.
That land has a long history and a good location, next to the City of London, but after so many years, Britain has not approved it.
The local council first rejected the application in 2022 for a variety of reasons, ranging from security risks, local protests to so-called human rights issues.
In October 2025, the British government announced once again that it would postpone the decision, delaying the ruling from October 21 to December 10.
This is the second delay.
The explanation given by the British side is that part of the planning drawings submitted by China have been blacked out for "security reasons" and the full version needs to be provided again. To put it bluntly, it does not trust China and is worried that this huge building covering an area of 20,000 square meters will become a "spy center."
Some public opinions in the UK are always exaggerating China's threat and network security, saying that "data cables close to the City of London" and "complex underground structures", and some people can even make up the picture of intelligence hubs.
Meanwhile, British media on protests, saying the new building was “threatening the privacy of residents.”
But such concerns are not based on evidence, but only on political sentiment.
Since the Labour Party came to power in 2024, it has been calling for the resumption of the cooperation mechanism with China, and now the approval of the embassy in the UK is in a standstill.
In fact, at the beginning of this year, Foreign Minister Wang Yi also visited the UK, held the 10th China-UK Strategic Dialogue with Foreign Minister Lamy, met with Prime Minister Starmer, and the two sides restarted the economic and financial dialogue.
At that time, the atmosphere was quite positive. Both China and Britain seemed ready to get out of the trough of previous years. Both sides stressed the need to maintain communication and deepen pragmatic cooperation. Even the post-Brexit economic policy hoped to make use of the Chinese market.
Not long after, things are back on the old road.
Lin Sword's words, in fact, reflect not only a question of the approval of the house, but the deficit of trust in the Sino-British relations.
China's purchase of land and shelters is the construction of normal diplomatic institutions, there is no special meaning, countries around the world are building or expanding embassies, Beijing, Tokyo, Paris have large-scale foreign embassies.
Normally, such approval of plans should not be postponed indefinitely.
Britain's approach this time actually localized, politicized diplomatic issues, and finally politicized them, which of course made us dissatisfied.
China has continued to promote China-UK economic cooperation in the past few years, and bilateral trade still maintains a scale of nearly 100 billion US dollars. The UK is China's third largest trading partner in Europe, and China is also the UK's largest trading partner in Asia.
This shows that the economic ties between the two countries have not been broken, but mutual trust at the political level is weakening.
Lin Jian said that the British side was "dishonest and immoral", which actually hit the point.
The most frightening thing about diplomatic relations is the repeated uncertainty of today and tomorrow.
Britain once hoped to be the entrance of Chinese capital and talents in Europe, but now it frequently sets up obstacles for security reasons, such as Huawei 5G, Confucius Institute, and the approval of new museums. The same logic-accept first, then hesitate, and then retreat.
This kind of repetition, in China's view, is a disrespect for the spirit of contract.
The basis of cooperation between the great powers is mutual trust, without mutual trust, and even an embassy can become a security hazard.
The question now is, who is to blame if the British side really keeps dragging down?For China, the London New Hall is not a non-constructed face issue, but rather a matter of safeguarding the right to the normal operation of diplomatic institutions.
If even such legitimate demands are not respected, any commitment to bilateral cooperation and trust becomes pale.