Plan for new 'Chinese super embassy' opposite Tower of London goes to public inquiry

More than 1,000 radical are readying to show against China’s projected ‘super embassy’ adjacent the Tower of London connected Saturday.

The plans were besides initially opposed by the Metropolitan Police, connected the grounds that protests extracurricular could interaction nationalist information and artifact roads owed to determination being excessively small abstraction extracurricular the embassy.

However, the unit aboriginal dropped its objection.

The protestation comes up of a readying enquiry which is owed to commencement connected Tuesday.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and Foreign Secretary David Lammy person some indicated their enactment for the arguable scheme.

They said successful a missive past period that it was important for countries to person “functioning diplomatic premises successful each other’s capitals”.

Tower Hamlets councillors rejected the strategy contempt readying officers describing it arsenic “well-designed” and recommending approval.

They cited the imaginable harm to surrounding practice sites, specified arsenic the Tower of London, information fears and the interaction of the improvement connected residents surviving successful the neighbouring Royal Mint Estate.

Campaigners voiced their protestation owed to China’s repression of the Muslim Uyghur people. Tower Hamlets is the section authorization with the highest proportionality of Muslim residents successful the state astatine astir 40 per cent.

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan upheld the council’s determination successful February 2023 and China past missed the deadline to entreaty to the readying inspectorate, seemingly ending the saga.

However the proposals were resubmitted past August.

The enquiry volition instrumentality spot betwixt February 11 and February 18, earlier Ms Rayner makes a last decision.