Concerns are rising over proposed plans to build a new Chinese embassy in London that includes underground rooms within close proximity to sensitive communications infrastructure in the U.K.
The proposed Chinese embassy will cover about a massive 237,000 square feet and include more than 200 rooms underground, making it China’s largest embassy in Europe.
Planning drawings of the proposed embassy obtained by the Daily Telegraph earlier this week show a basement room located just over 3 feet away from high-speed fiber optic cables.
Those cables carry financial transactions, emails and online messages for millions of users linking U.K. data centres to transatlantic cables connecting to the U.S.
The U.K. is expected to decide whether to approve the construction of the Chinese embassy before Jan. 20, ahead of the U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s possible visit to China later this month.
The proximity of the Chinese embassy to high-speed fiber optic cables is raising security concerns in the U.K. and the U.S.
U.K. Conservative Party lawmaker Alicia Kearns said that risks of handing over access to data would give China’s government “a launchpad for economic warfare against our nation.”
Lawmakers from the governing Labour Party who oppose the plan say concerns include “the recent track record of Chinese espionage cases, interference activities and issuing of bounties against U.K.-based Hong Kongers.”
Chinese dissidents have also been among hundreds of people who have protested the plans, saying a mega-embassy housing large numbers of officials would further the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s repression of activists abroad.
A senior U.S. official told The Telegraph that the U.S. is deeply concerned about adversaries exploiting critical infrastructure belonging to close allies.
U.S. House Select Committee on the CCP Chairman John Moolenaar said he opposes the plan, warning American data could be at risk.
