Keir Starmer arrives in China in the next few hours, on the first trip of a premier British Prime Minister since 2018, with the aim of reviving political and economic relations with Beijing after a long period of diplomatic strain. In addition to Beijing, Starmer will also visit Shanghai and, briefly, Japan. Downing Street's diplomatic offensive comes eleven days after the Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney...also breaking years of silence with Xi Jinping, established a preliminary trade agreement, considered historic.

The planned opening of a new Chinese embassy in the United Kingdom – which will be one of the largest in the world – and which is expected to be located next to the Tower of London, has raised the residents of the East Smithfield district, on the north bank of the River Thames, up in arms. The Royal Mint is located there, a neoclassical monumental complex from the beginning of the 19th century, where the coins in legal circulation in the United Kingdom were minted until 1968, as well as other commemorative coins. Since then, the space has had different uses. First, it was linked to the historical centre of the medieval city where the museum of the old die house is already located; and then, from the mid-1980s, it was used for a partial renovation of the area.