'Magnet for surveillance' British spies play down fears over security risk

While there has been no shortage of politicians eager to raise concerns about plans for a Chinese “mega embassy” near the Tower of London, many in the espionage community take a different view, arguing that concerns about the development are exaggerated and misplaced.

- Dan Sabbagh Defence and security editor

The UK’s domestic Security Service, better known as MI5, is quietly welcoming the prospect of China rationalising its seven diplomatic sites in the capital to one. More significantly, modern technology and the nature of the Chinese threat mean that, in the words of one former British intelligence officer, embassies are becoming “less and less relevant” anyway.

Spies have long operated from diplomatic outposts, posing as officials or trade envoys. If, as widely expected, China is granted planning permission to build a new embassy complex at Royal Mint Court, it will employ more than 200 people. In line with Beijing’s normal policy, all are expected to be Chinese nationals, from the ambassador down to the most junior kitchen porter, with residences provided on site.

Among the staff - as is the case with its current embassy north of Oxford Circus - will be a handful of undeclared officers from China’s military intelligence and ministry of state security (MSS). According to one former MI6 officer, these will be performing routine intelligence operations, such as “highlighting contacts of potential interest [and] getting to know people”.

Yet it will not be easy for any of them to engage in the “serious business of espionage”, the former spy argued, not least because any embassy is a “magnet for attention and surveillance”.