Inside the 'David vs Goliath' fight to stop China building a 'super-fortress' embassy

“I love all the culture that’s going on around here, I like all the history,” says Mark Nygate as he takes Big Issue around the estate he has lived on since 1998.

When he moved in, he could not have envisioned the geopolitical row that would take place just yards from his front door. The residents of St Mary Graces Court in London’s Tower Hamlets have found themselves at the heart of a row between Beijing and Westminster over plans to build a new Chinese embassy on their estate. China has been eyeing the 20,000sqm of land to create a “super-fortress” embassy on the site of the Royal Mint Court, right in the heart of London, just across the road from the Tower of London.

The Chinese government purchased the land in 2018. Then-China ambassador to the UK Liu Xiaoming even held an opening ceremony at the site and said that he hoped the deal would “write a new chapter for a China-UK ‘Golden Era’ and “build a community with a shared future for mankind”.

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But the row on whether construction will go ahead has put the spotlight on relations between the two countries and, more recently, Labour’s approach to planning decisions.

Residents living in 100 leasehold and shared ownership apartments on the site have opposed the plans, fearing they could be in the firing line for protests and other security risks. Housing secretary Angela Rayner is set to decide this month after the government called in the planning decision in October.

The Royal Mint Court Residents’ Association has been preparing to take its case to ministers at the inquiry, which kicked off on 11 February. The group tried to raise £30,000 for legal representation at what they have termed a ‘David vs Goliath’ encounter.

For residents like Nygate, there is a feeling they have been passed over. His one-bedroom flat sits just yards from the fence separating the homes from the proposed embassy building. Under the plans, his home will directly face residences for China’s embassy staff.

He tells Big Issue he worries what it means for his security – and of his fears about what would happen if there was some kind of attack. He wants his Chinese landlords to install blast-proof glass to mitigate the threat.

China’s ruling Communist Party has repeatedly faced allegations of human rights abuses and even genocide against the Uyghur population and other mostly Muslim ethnic groups in the north-western region of Xinjiang. 

Beijing’s strong-arm approach to Taiwan, Tibet and Hong Kong and action to silence dissidents has also sparked protests, and residents fear that will make the site a target for a bomb blast or the ‘lone-wolf’ terror Keir Starmer recently identified.

“It’s a huge issue about privacy, about security,” says Nygate. “I think it’s wrong for any embassy to be here. We’ve got the Tower of London. We’ve got Tower Bridge. The Tower is a world heritage site. We could lose that.”

How does he feel about the prospect of a possible attack?

“Not happy. Really annoyed that they’re not actually even considering. It’s all put out to them about our concerns. They ignore it.”

For 64-year-old Nygate, moving doesn’t feel like an option either. His flat is part-owned under shared ownership and selling his share is unlikely to fetch enough to buy a home elsewhere in London’s pricey property market.

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It’s also nigh-on impossible to find a new place to live that would have the heritage of being home to the Royal Mint in the 19th and 20th centuries. 

“I’ve never had any plans to move,” says Nygate as he shows Big Issue around the estate. “If we got bought out, what would I get? I would not get enough to continue living in London. I’d have to look elsewhere.”

The battle over the future of the site is far from the normal YIMBY vs NIMBY planning row. The small community of 100 homes at St Mary Graces Court were originally intended to be social housing and shared ownership homes for key workers. The estate was opened in 1987, with households subject to a 126-year lease while the Crown Estate retained ownership.

The royal estate sold off the 5.4-acre plot in 2010 before Beijing bought Royal Mint Court eight years later. China’s government appointed David Chipperfield Architects to design its ‘fortress’ embassy but the plans have faced opposition from residents for years. Chairman of the residents’ association David Lake, a retired engineer who has lived in the development since 1990, wrote to King Charles in 2022 to ask him to intervene on the initial planning permission.

Tower Hamlets Council refused the application citing safety concerns and remained unmoved when considering an identical application in December.

A Tower Hamlets Council spokesperson said: “A range of concerns were discussed at committee, raised by objectors, ward members and members of the committee. The committee resolved to reject the application due to concerns over the impact on resident and tourist safety, heritage, police resources and highway safety given the congested nature of the area.”

But now the decision is out of the local council’s hands and up to ministers to accept or reject the plan. Residents believe it is near-certain that the Labour government, which has focused on planning reforms and vowed to be “builders not blockers” in a bid to boost growth, will approve the embassy.

In a letter written last November, the Metropolitan Police’s deputy assistant commissioner Jon Savell voiced opposition to the plan, warning of the “impact on residents’ safety and security” and “significant protest activity”. He argued that protests with more than 100 attendees would spill out on the road or towards the Tower of London, adding that more than 20 protests at China’s existing embassy had more than 100 attendees in 2023-24. 

Residents are already getting a taste of what might be their new normal after more than 1,000 people protested against the embassy on 9 February. Some protesters – reportedly including people from Hong Kong, China as well as Tibetans and Uyghers – clashed with police as anger at the plans spilled over at the site and its surrounding roads.

Conservative MPs addressed the rally, including Iain Duncan Smith, Robert Jenrick and Tom Tugendhat, who warned crowds “when the Chinese Communist Party brings its presence, fear comes close behind”. 

Senior Labour figures, however, have indicated they are prepared to green-light the embassy. Foreign secretary David Lammy and home secretary Yvette Cooper both wrote to the Planning Inspectorate last month, revealing that the Met Police had withdrawn its previous opposition.

“On balance, the Metropolitan Police’s public order experts are content that there is sufficient space for future protests without significantly impacting the adjacent road network,” the letter read.

The embassy could signal warmer UK relations with China at a time when the United States has been confrontational with Beijing over tariffs and TikTok. Starmer met Chinese president Xi Jinping at November’s G20 Summit pledging an approach that would be “consistent, respectful and pragmatic” to partner on trade and investment, health, education and more.

But all the geopolitical posturing is of real consequence to people like Nygate who told Big Issue the five-year planning battle on the ground had been “draining”.

For others living on the estate, there is a bigger fear.

“This raises the question: is democracy alive and well? Can people stand up or not? Can you stand up against the British government and a foreign government who’ve made decisions?” another resident, who wished to remain anonymous, tells Big Issue.

“It is a real global test case. How do we ensure democracy, social housing and mobility and security of people is not just handed over?”

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