LondonHours later criticizing the United Kingdom for supposedly committing "a great stupidity" and showing "weakness" facing China and Russia over the plans of transfer the archipelago of the strategic Chagos Islands —a decision that, according to the US president, reinforces the need to "buy Greenland"—, Trump now has a new excuse—though he doesn't need one—to continue attacking his most loyal ally.
This Tuesday, the Labour government gave the final green light to the installation, a few meters from the Tower of London and the City of London financial district, of The largest embassy that Beijing will have in all of Europe and one of the largest in the worldOnce the 22,000-square-meter Chinese embassy opens, the United States and China will demonstrate their rivalry for global influence through their two representations in the British capital, north and south of the Thames, respectively. China had been awaiting permission after numerous delays, primarily due to internal government debates about the risk of having what Conservatives, some Labour MPs, and the entire right-wing press warn could be a "spiety hub" so close to the City of London. toryKemi Badenoch called the decision a "capitulation and an act of cowardice."
The British government's decision paves the way for a visit to Beijing by Prime Minister Keir Starmer in the coming days or weeks. Starmer's long-awaited trip to the Chinese capital will take place very shortly after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's visit. did in China last Friday and which put an end to years of tense relations between the two countries.
Situació de la futura ambaixada xinesa a Londres
edifici històric proposat
edifici històric proposat
edifici històric proposat
Trump's words must also be understood within the context of a realignment of global geostrategic balances, and at a time when the White House's drift has astonished its old Western allies. These allies are looking to China for the stability that Washington cannot offer them. However, both the European Union and the United Kingdom have recently declared... China as a "systemic rival"However, collaboration seems almost inevitable.
Starmer's government is defending itself against criticism of the embassy approval by asserting that it is far better for all Chinese diplomatic representation to be in a single building than in the seven current offices scattered throughout the British capital. A government spokesperson also stated that intelligence agencies have been involved throughout, with a "wide range of measures in place to manage any risks." For his part, the head of MI5 (domestic intelligence) commented that the threat to national security cannot be completely eliminated, but added that the risk mitigation assessment was "expert, professional, and proportionate."
Iconic building
The future location of the embassy is highly symbolic, as it will occupy the former premises of the Royal Mint, a monumental neoclassical complex from the early 19th century, where legal tender coins in the United Kingdom, as well as commemorative coins, were minted until 1968. Now, only legal action from local residents (the East Smithfield neighborhood) who oppose the project and have repeatedly protested to halt it could stop it. Beijing bought the property in 2018 and had since requested the installation of its new embassy. Recently, the Daily TelegraphThe newspaper, fiercely opposed to the embassy for the same national security reasons cited by the Conservative Party and a group of Labour MPs and Lords, has reported that Beijing will build a network of 208 secret rooms in the building that could be used as detention cells for opponents of Xi's regime. According to the same newspaper, which has had access to the renovation plans, a hidden chamber will also be built just over a meter away from fiber optic cables that carry financial data from the City of London and private communications for millions of users. There are approximately 280,000 Hong Kong citizens living in the United Kingdom, having left the former British colony since 1999.the tightening of lawsof national security. According to the 2021 census, 121,000 Chinese citizens also live in the islands. And in the 2022-23 academic year, more than 150,000 students studied at British universities, paying very high fees, which are a lifeline for institutions facing increasing financial difficulties due to a lack of government support.
In 2022, against all odds, the local planning council of the Tower Hamlets borough, where the East Smithfield neighborhood is located, vetoed the development project for the new embassy, designed by architect David Chipperfield. Butafter the Labour victory in JulyIn 2024, China reapplied for the permit, hoping the new government in London would give the project the green light. In all likelihood, the final decision will rest with the courts. Or perhaps, as usual, with Donald Trump.
An Anglo-American base in the Indian Ocean for the next 140 years
In yet another of his usual inaccuracies, Donald Trump believes that by relinquishing sovereignty over the Chagos Islands archipelago (central Indian Ocean), London is abandoning the joint US-British air base on Diego Garcia. However, in May 2025, the Republican administration approved the agreement reached by Downing Street with Mauritius, which includes possession of the Diego Garcia military complex, and imposed a ban on any foreign installations in the surrounding area for the next 99 years, with the possibility of a four-decade extension.
Diego Garcia is considered by the Pentagon to be the necessary platform for operating in the Asia-Pacific region and curbing China's expansionist ambitions in the area. The island of Mauritius remained under British sovereignty from 1810 to 1968, and the Chagos Archipelago was the last vestige of that colonial past. London still needs to ratify the treaty through an ad hoc law that the Starmer government signed with the Mauritian government in May 2025 for the transfer of sovereignty to be legal and binding.
