From 52m ago Minister tells MPs MI5 and GCHQ think having all Chinese diplomats on one site will have ‘clear security advantages’ In the Commons Dan Jarvis, the security minister, is taking questions from MPs about the decision to approve the Chinese “super-embassy”. He quoted from the letter written by Sir Ken McCallum, the MI5 director general, and Anne Keast-Butler, the GCHQ director, about this project, and put particular emphasis on this passage. It is worth reiterating the new embassy will replace seven different diplomatically-accredited sites across London which China…
Tag: MI5
UK government approves Chinese ‘mega embassy’ in London
The UK government has approved the construction of a vast new Chinese embassy complex in east London, despite concerns about security and its impact on political exiles in the capital. The decision by the communities secretary, Steve Reed, brings to an end, for now at least, the saga that has been running since 2018 over the site at Royal Mint Court near Tower Bridge. However, residents of Royal Mint Court plan to mount a legal challenge to the decision within weeks, amid concerns they could be forced out of their…
Royal Mint Court residents plan legal challenge if Chinese ‘mega embassy’ in London approved
Residents of Royal Mint Court plan to mount a legal challenge within weeks if Steve Reed, the local government secretary, approves China’s plans to build a vast new embassy at the site by the Tower of London on Tuesday. Mark Nygate, the treasurer of the local Royal Mint Court Residents’ Association, said people living near the proposed development had concerns about “government interference in what is supposed to be an independent process”. The group has raised nearly £37,000 out of the £145,000 required to instruct lawyers to seek a judicial…
Why a Chinese ‘mega embassy’ is not such a worry for British spies
While there has been no shortage of politicians eager to raise concerns about China’s proposed “mega embassy” near the Tower of London, the espionage community quietly takes a different view, arguing that concerns about the development are exaggerated and misplaced. The domestic Security Service, MI5, is already quietly welcoming the prospect of rationalising China’s seven diplomatic sites to one, but a more significant argument is that modern technology and the nature of the Chinese threat means that, in the words of one former British intelligence officer, “embassies are less and…
MI5 ‘very relaxed’ about proposed Chinese super-embassy in London, sources say
MI5 officers told the House of Commons speaker at a private meeting that they can tackle the risks of a proposed Chinese super-embassy in London, opening the door to its approval. The Guardian understands that in a meeting held with Lindsay Hoyle in the summer, senior figures from the Security Service indicated they were “very relaxed” about the prospect of a 20,000 sq metre embassy being constructed at Royal Mint Court near Tower Bridge. It is considered that the espionage risks stemming from the large outpost can be managed. China…
UK holds talks with LinkedIn on clamping down on Chinese espionage
The government is holding talks with LinkedIn on how it can clamp down on prolific Chinese espionage activity after a rare interference alert was issued by MI5. The National Protective Security Authority, which is part of the UK’s security services, is speaking to social media platforms about making them less attractive for foreign agents, a government official told the Guardian. MPs and peers were told on Tuesday that they faced “a covert and calculated” attempt at espionage via two LinkedIn profiles linked to the Chinese intelligence service. MI5 said the…
Head of CPS faces cross-party pressure to explain China spy trial collapse
The director of public prosecutions has come under intense cross-party pressure to explain why the China spy trial collapsed as MI5 expressed frustration at the decision and MPs launched a series of inquiries into how it was taken. The chairs of the home affairs, foreign affairs, justice and national security committees wrote together to Stephen Parkinson, the head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), on Thursday calling on him to give “a fuller explanation for the dropping of charges”. They asked Parkinson “what steps did you take to make ministers…
The Guardian view on UK national security: a case of state failure | Editorial
The China spying row has revealed disturbing weaknesses in the processes of the UK state. It cannot be in the national interest for a case involving national security to get so close to the courts and then for it to be abandoned in what remain mysterious circumstances. Public confidence, as well as security itself, are inevitably placed at risk. But this genuinely important issue now risks being blanketed by the fog of the party-political battle at Westminster. For the third time this week, MPs spent Thursday trading accusations about whether the Conservatives or Labour are more…
MI5 chief ‘frustrated’ at failure to put men accused of spying for China on trial
The MI5 director general, Ken McCallum, has acknowledged his frustration at the failure to put on trial two Britons who had been accused of spying for China, in an apparent rebuke to prosecutors who dropped the high-profile case last month. The domestic spy chief insisted he would “never back off” from confronting threats from Beijing, which he said posed a national security threat “every day”, although the wider UK-China relationship was a matter for the government. A China-related spy plot was disrupted “in the last week”, he said, though it…
Government made ‘every effort’ to support China spy case, says minister
The government made “every effort” to support the trial of two men accused of spying for China, a minister has said as he accused the Tories of claiming the case was deliberately abandoned “without a shred of evidence”. Dan Jarvis, the security minister, issued a robust defence of Jonathan Powell in the Commons after reports that Keir Starmer’s national security adviser played a role in the collapse of the case. His intervention prolongs an extraordinary blame game between ministers and prosecutors over the abandonment of charges against two men, including…