Should Londoners be worried about China’s super-embassy access to communication cables?

Londoners have been warned they at risk of threats, intimidation and espionage as China’s ‘super-embassy’ plans are given the go-ahead after years of diplomatic rows.

Beijing has been allowed to turn the former Royal Mint building in Tower Hamlets into Europe’s largest embassy despite widespread security concerns.

For years, the building plans remained redacted for ‘security reasons’, including ‘two suites of anonymous unlabelled basement rooms and a tunnel’.

Last week they were revealed in full to the public, and locals and Chinese dissidents who have fled to the UK still do not feel at ease.

The building would be China’s largest ever in Europe, sitting at around 22,000 square metres.

And most concerningly, the building will be placed close to fibre optic cables transmitting email and messaging data for millions of people.

China’s access to communication cables

Two years ago, MI5 were reportedly worried about the building’s close proximity to major communication cables, leaving them susceptible to an attack.

Plans unveiled last week show a hidden chamber and a network of 208 secret rooms beneath the building, The Telegraph reports.

The concealed chamber will sit directly alongside the fibre-optic cables, which transmits financial to the heart of London’s financial district.

The same room will also be fitted with heat extraction fans, suggesting the installation of equipment such as computers which need to be kept cool.

Theouter basement of the wall – lying between the room and the fibre optic cables – will also be demolished and ‘rebuilt’.

Security expert Will Geddes told Metro: ‘A super-embassy would become the mothership of all lucrative communication.

‘The surveillance capabilities will be much greater, but being next to these important cables raises an even greater risk.’

He explained that China will ‘easily’ be intercept the wires by hot tapping.

‘Or they can just set up their own, which we in turn would struggle to intercept,’ Will said.

In Denmark, intelligence agencies confirmed a state-sponsored Chinese hack group Salt Typhoon targeted Dutch internet providers in 2024.

But now MI5 has warned it is ‘not realistic to expect to be able wholly to eliminate each and every potential risk’.

China’s ‘modern-day dungeon and secret tunnel’ beneath the city

The plans have also revealed a network of 208 rooms within the basement – but it is still unclear what they will be used for.

They were previously heavily redacted for ‘security reasons’, and Will said the unnamed rooms ‘could be used for anything’, and the fact its purpose is stillis concerning.

He said: ‘These rooms could be used for detentions, planning, and even weaponry. All of which can be utilised against dissenters.’

In 2023, it was revealed the Chinese embassy was running overseas police stations to harass dispersed communities and coerce people to return to China.

Last year Shadow Levelling Up Secretary Kevin Hollinrake said the unnamed basement could even be a ‘modern-day dungeon’.

In a letter to the prime minister, Mr Hollinrake said: ‘Why does the use of the basement rooms need to be redacted, given they are not in public sight and there is no public access?

‘This subterranean zone will undeniably be used for intelligence work by the Chinese Communist Party and its arm, the United Front Work Department.

‘But there is also a chilling prospect that it could be used for the abduction, intimidation or torture of anti-Chinese dissidents living in the United Kingdom.’

China’s increased access to business

As the UK moves to try and shake the economic grip China has on us, it seems to be a backwards step allowing the super-embassy an opportunity for a greater influence.

Last year MPs approved government plans to take control of British Steel’s blast furnaces after negotiations with British Steel’s Chinese owners, Jingye, appeared to break down.

The company has stopped buying enough raw materials to keep the blast furnace going, with business secretary Jonathan Reynolds accusing them of failing to negotiate ‘in good faith’.

Will told Metro: ‘China is well ahead of us in terms of technology, and they have this uncanny ability of acquiring significant shareholding in the UK.

‘The creation of the super-embassy will just bring it closer to business, and this can provide the country with a greater legitimacy of having a foothold so they can undertake all parts of economic espionage.’

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