UK-China embassy row sparks espionage fears

ODN

Both Labour and Conservatives have raised red flags over a proposed Chinese super-embassy in London. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said the US was right to be concerned, claiming Labour is “cosying up to China” at the cost of national security. Meanwhile, Technolgy Secretary Peter Kyle says the UK has longstanding, secure processes in place to monitor foreign diplomatic sites, adding the public should feel reassured. Report by Etemadil. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn

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00:00The Americans are absolutely right. It is very likely the Chinese would use this super embassy

00:04as a base for espionage, probably not just in the UK but across Europe. Moreover, there are some

00:10critical data centres very close to that embassy site, proposed embassy site, and there are some

00:15critical data cables in that vicinity as well. I think it's a really bad idea to give the Chinese

00:21government permission for that embassy. And in fact, in government, we conservatives were clear

00:25we did not want to give permission to this embassy, but Keir Starmer is so desperate to cosy up to

00:31President Xi and the Chinese that he will apparently do pretty much whatever they ask, and that is weak

00:36and it's wrong. The Chinese embassy is going through the planning process at the moment.

00:40Our planning process in our country is rigorous, but people have to understand we are very, very

00:45used in this country to dealing with these sorts of diplomatic instances and making sure that any

00:51diplomatic installations in our country are rigorously monitored and they are kept secure.

00:58This is not a new issue for Britain. We also have a great relationship with the United States,

01:03and of course we share intelligence with the United States, so this is all part of the process of having

01:09a partnership with the US where if they have concerns we will answer them. But people need to rest assured

01:15this is not a new challenge for us. This is something we deal with day in, day out in order to keep our

01:21country safe and secure and I can assure people that is exactly what we are doing.

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