It was the site of Britain’s Royal Mint, where coins were struck from 1810 to 1975. It sits atop the ruins of a Cistercian abbey dating to the 14th century, as well as a burial ground from the Black Death. And from the 16th century to the early 18th century, it was a supply yard for the Royal Navy.
Now the storied compound known as Royal Mint Court is on the brink of a new chapter as the home of the Chinese Embassy in London. If Britain’s Labour government approves the project, as seems likely, China will move its embassy from its current quarters in Marylebone to an imposing, 5.5-acre complex across town, which would be the largest diplomatic outpost in Europe.
Handing Beijing such a prime piece of real estate, next to the Tower of London and in the shadow of the skyscrapers of London’s City, has set off a storm of opposition from neighborhood residents, China hawks in the British Parliament and Hong Kong democracy advocates who have resettled in Britain.
Some say China could use the embassy, with its proximity to strategic fiber-optic cables that snake under the financial district, to spy on dissidents and ordinary Britons. Others claim its location, on a busy road just off the Tower Bridge, would make it hard for crowds to gather to protest issues like Beijing’s crackdown on Hong Kong or its persecution of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.
“This is not just a building; this is an extension of the Chinese Communist Party’s power in the U.K.,” said Chloe Cheung, a representative of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, a pro-democracy group, as she spoke to more than 1,000 protesters who rallied at the site this month.
