An exterior view of the Royal Mint Court, an 18th-century Grade II-listed complex, which will also serve as the possible future Chinese embassy in London, on June 10, 2025. Photo: VCG

The UK government is reportedly poised to approve a new Chinese embassy in London on Tuesday, a decision that could bring an end to years of delays driven by pressure from some US and UK politicians, with Tuesday marking the latest deadline for a verdict on the project, according to UK media reports.

According to the Financial Times, the approval is expected to be announced by Housing Secretary Steve Reed following a public inquiry and a formal recommendation by the planning inspectorate, effectively giving the long-stalled project the green light.

The process ending this week started in 2018 when China paid £255m for the site of the Royal Mint Court near the Tower of London, on which to build a diplomatic complex that would be its biggest in Europe. 

Ahead of the expected decision, UK Foreign minister Seema Malhotra has sought to reassure members of parliament on Monday of the involvement of Britain's security services in the process of the new embassy project. She said "resolutions" had been reached over concerns about public access to the embassy and the consolidation of China's diplomatic buildings across London into the single site, according to Bloomberg.

Despite these assurances, the proposed embassy has drawn criticism from some British politicians. The Financial Times reported that Conservative shadow Home Office minister Alicia Kearns claimed the proposals include a "shadowy network of 208 secret rooms," citing reports about so-called secret facilities, and asked the government to delay its decision again in order to examine the blueprint in greater detail.

A Chinese expert said the controversy surrounding the project reflects long-standing political fluctuations in the UK's China policy rather than genuine security risks, rejecting groundless "national security" concerns tied to the plan.

The proposal for a new embassy was put forward as early as 2018 when the site was purchased, but progress was repeatedly stalled, largely due to a sharp policy shift toward China under the previous Conservative government. Only after Prime Minister Keir Starmer's administration took office has London gradually adjusted toward a more pragmatic China policy, Li Guanjie, a research fellow at the Shanghai Academy of Global Governance and Area Studies under Shanghai International Studies University, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

"The choice of the embassy site would undoubtedly have undergone scrutiny by the British government and its intelligence services," Li said, adding that claims by some UK politicians that the project poses a threat to national security are entirely unfounded. He noted that accusing an embassy before starting construction of endangering national security without evidence amounts to baseless speculation, with some politicians simply using the issue to attack China.

The saga reflected a UK government that was "hot and cold on China", according to The Guardian, quoting Prof Kerry Brown, the director of the Lau China Institute at King's College London, "What was originally a relatively straightforward issue has become symbolically quite difficult," he said.

China, Brown said, "felt they had an understanding that they bought this £250m place to use as an embassy … if there were going to be issues, they could have been told then," according to the Guardian.

The newspaper also cited voices from within the UK intelligence community, noting that while politicians eager to raise concerns about China's proposed "mega embassy" near the Tower of London, the espionage community quietly takes a different view, arguing that concerns about the development are exaggerated and misplaced.

Bloomberg noted the decision comes at a sensitive time for UK-US relations, after US President Donald Trump threatened Britain and other European countries with tariffs for defending Greenland against his ambitions to take it over.

Li said the UK government could draw lessons from recent diplomatic engagements, including a previous visit by the Canadian prime minister to China, which demonstrated that China is a country with policy continuity and a principle of non-interference in other nations' internal affairs. 

"This stands in sharp contrast to the US, which now openly talks about annexing Greenland and frequently points fingers at other countries' domestic issues," Li said, adding that recognizing this reality would better serve future China-UK economic cooperation.

China's Foreign Ministry has previously expressed strong dissatisfaction with the UK's repeated postponement of a decision on the embassy project. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said China "expresses strong concern and opposition to the UK's latest decision on the new Chinese embassy project, which has been put off by the UK for seven years."