The plans for a “super-ambassada” of a communist state in the heart of an important European city gives the locals. “It's a bad joke”

Cartwright Street is normally calm, being wearing a renowned landmark, but the people of people living in the center of the British capital risk being disturbed by Beijing plans to raise a new diplomatic mission in the area, CNN reports.

China continues the projects for its new diplomatic representation at Royal Mint Court, a large land in central London, near Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. The imposing building, which is now empty, once hosted the monetary of Great Britain.

If the proposal is approved, China will invest several hundred million dollars in transforming the building, becoming the largest embassy in Europe. China bought the historical land in 2018 for about $ 312 million.

Beijing's plans have aroused spy fears, the inhabitants of the area, worried about their personal safety, and come at a time when China offered rewards for Hong Kong citizens in the UK.

The United Kingdom has been a popular destination for many emigrants from the former British colony, now a semi-autonomous city of China, where Beijing has harshly suppressed dissent in the last five years.

Barry, an insurance broker working in the Royal Mint Court area, compared China's land to sell the crown jewelry by the British government.

“The building is a monument of the United Kingdom … it was the royal currency. So it gives it to a foreign, especially Chinese government, given everything that is happening with the Chinese, it is a bad joke,” he told CNN.

“Our office is right in front of the building and I didn't hear anyone say something good about it.”

The decision on construction, on the table of the British government

After many disputes at the Government level, Angela Rayner, Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary for Housing of the United Kingdom, should make a final decision on the approval of controversial plans until September 9th.

In a situation overthrow last week, Rayner gave China for two weeks to explain why certain parts of the plane presented for the Embassy site were censored.

The letter, seen by the British News Agency PA, sets the deadline on August 20 for Beijing to present the reasons for writing the information.

Previously, the request of Beijing for the construction of the embassy was initially rejected by the Tower Hamlets Local Council in 2022 for security reasons. Beijing again filed the request last year, just a few weeks after returning to the Labor Party in the UK, in the hope that the new government led by Keir Starmer will be more receptive to this request.

The empty building of Royal Mint Court was to be transformed into a complex with shops, offices and a leisure center before being bought by China. Since then, about 100 homes in the area have been classified as located on land owned by China.

If the embassy's plans are completed, these properties will remain on Chinese land, although they will not enter the territory of the embassy.

Anxieties related to the “soft border”

The inhabitants of an apartment block in the west of Cartwright street could wake up in the vicinity of the embassy staff. The balconies built especially for the diplomatic staff will be visible from the windows behind the block, according to CNN.

The Association of Royal Mint Court inhabitants, representing about 300 people living in nearby buildings and who have been opposed to this plan for years, is afraid of how China will exercise its owner once the embassy is built in the neighborhood.

The treasurer of the association, Mark Nygate, 64 years old, lives in the neighborhood, just a few meters away. The parking of the block is separated from the proposed site for the embassy through a simple wooden fence, which Nygate calls “soft border”.

In the CNN statement, Nygate has expressed concern that Chinese owners could carry out random searches or that residents could be accused of espionage.

“I like to take pictures. I have a plot of land and take pictures there, but the parcel is right along the border. So you can easily take a picture and believe you spy,” the man said.

And the London Metropolitan Police has expressed concern about any mass demonstrations at the embassy, warning that they could prevent traffic and can expand on the streets, affecting the tourist areas.

China's “long arm”

Fears also come from groups for human rights, which say that the new building of the embassy could facilitate the espionage and application of the “long arm” law of Beijing, endangering the opponents of the Chinese government in the UK.

China has been accused in the past of using its outposts, in fact, that police stations abroad to monitor Chinese citizens abroad and compel them to return to the country.

Such an incident took place in the UK in October 2022, when a pro-democracy protester in Hong Kong was dragged into the courtyard of the Chinese consulate of Manchester and beaten, everything being filmed.

Subsequently, China expelled the UK in the United Kingdom that the police wanted to question about the alleged beating.

But others with key interests in the Royal Mint area have rejected spy fears and rewards as “alarmist”.

Mark Lahiff, a local real estate developer holding the position of general manager of the British branch of the IJM Malaysian company, has been pronounced in favor of setting up the Embassy in a government hear in London in February.

“This neighborhood, Tower Hamlets, is one of the poorest neighborhoods in the UK,” said Lahiff, whose projects with IJM includes the Royal Mint Gardens aparthotel for CNN. “For the People's Republic of China, the investment in this neighborhood is a huge one. The place has been deserted since 2008.”