China–United Kingdom relations The British government approves China 's new embassy at London 's Royal Mint Court, despite security concerns. The planning decision...

But a decision on the plans for the new 20,000 square-meter (215,000 square-foot) embassy – which would become China’s largest diplomatic outpost in Europe – was delayed three times before the government granted approval on Tuesday.

Britain wants China’s money and diplomatic goodwill, but has long been wary about allowing Beijing to build an embassy that would sit near fiber-optic cables carrying sensitive data for financial firms, and which some fear could be used to spy on Chinese nationals living in London.

The planning decision, a 240-page document, concluded that “the proposal complies with the development plan when taken as a whole,” and as such “planning permission and listed building consent should be granted.”.

Days before the government’s approval, the Telegraph, a British newspaper, published what it said were unredacted plans showing that China intends to build a complex of 208 rooms underneath the embassy.

One of the rooms, the paper said, would sit directly alongside and only a few feet away from fiber-optic cables that carry millions of British people’s email traffic and financial data.

Alicia Kearns, the shadow national security minister for the opposition Conservative Party, warned last week that, if granted, the plans “would give the Chinese Communist Party a launchpad for economic warfare against our nation” and “create a daily headache for our security services.”.

After his annual threat update in October, Ken McCallum, the head of the agency, told reporters: “Do Chinese state actors present a UK national security threat?

The answer is, of course, yes they do, every day.”.

MI5 also issued a rare alert in November, warning lawmakers that China’s intelligence services are using LinkedIn to pose as recruiters to target people who work in Parliament.

The Chinese embassy in London dismissed the claim as “malicious slander.”.

The political importance lies in whether the issue moves from public comment into formal action, party response, court record, election authority notice or administrative decision.