Planning drawings submitted by the Chinese show that if the development of the 
super-embassy is given the go-ahead the Wapping Telephone Exchange, which is run by BT Openreach and provides leading financial institutions with high-speed fibre optic communications, would be surrounded on three sides by embassy buildings.
The development, on the site of a former Barclays trading floor, would have accommodation for more than 200 diplomats and intelligence officers, making it the largest embassy in Europe. A nearby tunnel has carried fibre optic cables under the Thames since 1985.
According to security sources, Chinese spies have been siphoning data directly from cables across the UK.
“They are using wires as thin as a strand of human hair to access the bundles and obtain the information. It is incredibly hard to detect.”
The Bank of England also highlighted the risks of allowing the embassy to be built close to sensitive financial centres.
The latest revelations are likely to intensify Tory demands for an inquiry into claims that Labour has given private assurances to China that the project near the Tower of London would be approved — despite it being blocked under the last Conservative Government following the raising of security concerns.
The planning process was revived by Beijing after Sir Keir won last year's General Election, with Xi Jinping mentioning it directly to 
Chancellor Rachel Reeves when she visited China in January to discuss trade deals.
security services complain that they have been prevented from submitting evidence to the planning process for the embassy and that large swathes of the documents have been redacted. These include plans for two suites of basement rooms and a tunnel, dubbed 'the spy dungeons'.
Re-routing the cabling which runs nearby would cost UK taxpayers millions of pounds and need permission from the Chinese.
Sir Oliver Robbins, the permanent secretary at the Foreign Office, flew to China last week to try to persuade the authorities to allow the construction of a new British embassy in Beijing.
Dominic Cummings, a former aide to Boris Johnson, said when he was working in Downing Street the security services raised concerns that China would build a 'spy centre' under the London embassy.
'MI5 and MI6 said to me explicitly, "China is trying to build a spy centre underneath the embassy. It's an extremely bad idea to allow this to go ahead. It's particularly a bad idea given the exact location and various cables which run under London. Please help us try to persuade the Prime Minister to kibosh this dreadful idea because other powerful parts of Whitehall don't want to haves a row with China about it, particularly the Treasury".'
The Conservatives said that if any deal had taken place with China over the embassy it would amount to a flagrant breach of the ministerial code and open the whole process to judicial review.
They have written to Sir Laurie Magnus, the Prime Minister's independent ethics adviser, to ask him to investigate whether Sir Keir and ministers had broken the ministerial code.
Shadow housing secretary Sir James Cleverly: “At every stage, the Labour Government has tried to force through this planning application and suppress the growing concerns about the mega-embassy's impact on our national security.”
“It is shocking that the planning inquiry has had no discussion of the cyber-security risks to the City of London from the Chinese embassy surrounding its internet exchange and sitting on top of telecommunications cables. Labour ministers have silenced our intelligence and security agencies from sounding the alarm.”
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian responded to the postponement by expressing 'grave concern and strong dissatisfaction', and saying that the UK must 'immediately fulfil its obligations and honour its commitments, otherwise the British side shall bear all the consequences'.
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1
super-embassy is given the go-ahead the Wapping Telephone Exchange, which is run by BT Openreach and provides leading financial institutions with high-speed fibre optic communications, would be surrounded on three sides by embassy buildings.
The development, on the site of a former Barclays trading floor, would have accommodation for more than 200 diplomats and intelligence officers, making it the largest embassy in Europe. A nearby tunnel has carried fibre optic cables under the Thames since 1985.
According to security sources, Chinese spies have been siphoning data directly from cables across the UK.
“They are using wires as thin as a strand of human hair to access the bundles and obtain the information. It is incredibly hard to detect.”
The Bank of England also highlighted the risks of allowing the embassy to be built close to sensitive financial centres.
The latest revelations are likely to intensify Tory demands for an inquiry into claims that Labour has given private assurances to China that the project near the Tower of London would be approved — despite it being blocked under the last Conservative Government following the raising of security concerns.
The planning process was revived by Beijing after Sir Keir won last year's General Election, with Xi Jinping mentioning it directly to Chancellor Rachel Reeves when she visited China in January to discuss trade deals.
security services complain that they have been prevented from submitting evidence to the planning process for the embassy and that large swathes of the documents have been redacted. These include plans for two suites of basement rooms and a tunnel, dubbed 'the spy dungeons'.
Re-routing the cabling which runs nearby would cost UK taxpayers millions of pounds and need permission from the Chinese.
Sir Oliver Robbins, the permanent secretary at the Foreign Office, flew to China last week to try to persuade the authorities to allow the construction of a new British embassy in Beijing.
Dominic Cummings, a former aide to Boris Johnson, said when he was working in Downing Street the security services raised concerns that China would build a 'spy centre' under the London embassy.
'MI5 and MI6 said to me explicitly, "China is trying to build a spy centre underneath the embassy. It's an extremely bad idea to allow this to go ahead. It's particularly a bad idea given the exact location and various cables which run under London. Please help us try to persuade the Prime Minister to kibosh this dreadful idea because other powerful parts of Whitehall don't want to haves a row with China about it, particularly the Treasury".'
The Conservatives said that if any deal had taken place with China over the embassy it would amount to a flagrant breach of the ministerial code and open the whole process to judicial review.
They have written to Sir Laurie Magnus, the Prime Minister's independent ethics adviser, to ask him to investigate whether Sir Keir and ministers had broken the ministerial code.
Shadow housing secretary Sir James Cleverly: “At every stage, the Labour Government has tried to force through this planning application and suppress the growing concerns about the mega-embassy's impact on our national security.”
“It is shocking that the planning inquiry has had no discussion of the cyber-security risks to the City of London from the Chinese embassy surrounding its internet exchange and sitting on top of telecommunications cables. Labour ministers have silenced our intelligence and security agencies from sounding the alarm.”
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian responded to the postponement by expressing 'grave concern and strong dissatisfaction', and saying that the UK must 'immediately fulfil its obligations and honour its commitments, otherwise the British side shall bear all the consequences'.
dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1
Quote
Byron Wan
@Byron_Wan
The UK’s intelligence agencies have been prevented from submitting concerns to the Government about spying in the proposed super-embassy in London, because their evidence would also be disclosed to Beijing.
The embassy, which would be China’s largest in Europe, has prompted x.com/byron_wan/stat…
Show more super-embassy in London, because their evidence would also be disclosed to Beijing.
The embassy, which would be China’s largest in Europe, has prompted x.com/byron_wan/stat…