The Chinese regime has been criticised for ‘snubbing’ a forthcoming judicial review on the mega-embassy they want to build in London, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
The Beijing authorities have been accused of ‘showing contempt’ towards Britain’s judicial process after telling the judge leading the inquiry that they ‘have no intention’ of taking part in the inquiry.
The move has angered Tory MPs and local residents who mounted the review as a last-ditch effort to stop the super-embassy being built on the historic site of the Royal Mint, next to Tower Bridge.
Once it is built, the five-acre embassy will become the biggest diplomatic mission in Europe.
Tory MP Iain Duncan Smith said: ‘This is the Chinese showing contempt for our judicial process. This is part of their bullying attitude towards Britain.’
China bought the Royal Mint site near the Tower of London for £225million in 2018 to build its campus embassy, with at least 200 rooms in the sprawling 20,000 square metre estate.
But the application has been dogged by controversy with the local Tower Hamlets council refusing to allow planning permission for the embassy twice.
As well as Tory MPs, even the Trump administration has waded in to say planning permission should not be given.
Royal Mint Court, the proposed site of China’s planned mega-embassy in London
But earlier this year, the Government called in the application and Keir Starmer gave the go-ahead for the embassy.
His decision was condemned by Tory MPs, who said ‘kow-tow Keir’ was being ‘spineless’ and compromising national security for a better trade with Beijing.
Just before the Government’s decision, the heads of the security services made a rare intervention, saying the risk from the mega-embassy could not be fully eliminated, but mitigatory steps could be taken.
One such step was to re-route underground fibre optic cables that carried the most commercially sensitive data between the City of London and Canary Wharf, so that Chinese spies could not eavesdrop on them.
There were also fears that the new embassy will become a ‘nest’ for Beijing spies, who could even use the embassy to detain Chinese dissidents in secret underground rooms.
Earlier this year, a group of local residents called the Royal Mint Court Residents’ Association launched a judicial review to challenge the legality of the decision.
The group, which raised over £200,000 through crowdfunding, will argue that the planning decision was flawed as then prime minister Boris Johnson gave the go-ahead for the embassy in a letter to the Chinese embassy back in 2018.
The Note Verbale, which gave the go-ahead, effectively turned the Royal Mint into a diplomatic area before the planning process could even begin. This contravenes planning law, the group will argue.
Tory MP Iain Duncan Smith has accused China of ‘showing contempt for our judicial process’
But in a blow to the judicial process, the Chinese embassy has written to the judicial review judge, Mrs Justice Lieven, saying it will not participate in the procedures.
One source, who has seen the document, said: ‘The letter says that the Chinese embassy has no intention of participating in the relevant judicial proceedings.’
Last night, Mr Duncan Smith said: ‘This is what China is, a brutal, arrogant government, which has bullied the British government – which has been weak – into agreeing for them to take this very historic site for their embassy. It is wrong in so many areas.’
Fellow Tory MP Tom Tugendhat said: ‘In China’s one party state there are no checks on executive power. The Chinese Communist Party cannot understand the idea of a government decision being stopped in the courts. That’s why they believe they can ignore our laws.
‘By refusing to participate in this case, they have proven that the UK cannot expect them to abide by our processes or any promises made. They will claim diplomatic immunity to do what they want no matter what harm they cause us and those who live near the embassy site.’
The latest row comes as residents complained to Tower Hamlets council last week about the new barbed wire being placed on the site’s perimeter fence after a group of youths recently tried to scale it.
The judicial review at the High Court will begin on July 14. The Chinese embassy did not respond to a request for a comment.
