The British government has pushed back its decision on whether to approve China’s proposed new embassy in London after Beijing declined to fully explain why parts of its blueprints were

blacked out.

China wants to build what would be its biggest embassy in Europe on the historic Royal Mint Court site, right next to the Tower of London. But the project has been stuck for years, facing strong pushback from local residents, MPs, and Hong Kong pro-democracy activists living in Britain.

Critics in both the UK and the U.S. have warned that the site could be used for espionage. That concern only deepened when planning documents showed entire sections of the embassy plan were hidden from view.

DP9, the consultancy handling the project for Beijing, said China wouldn’t be sharing every detail of the layout. In a letter to the government, they argued that the drawings already submitted gave enough information and that further disclosures would be “neither necessary nor appropriate.”

That answer didn’t go down well. Luke de Pulford, head of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China and a long-time opponent of the project, dismissed the explanation, saying it essentially boiled down to “trust me, bro.”

The government’s housing department now says it needs more time to weigh up the situation and will decide by October 21 instead of the original September 9 deadline.

China’s embassy in London hit back, saying it was “seriously concerned” by the delay and insisting the UK has an international obligation to approve the plans. Earlier this month, it rejected accusations that the site could include “secret facilities” as nothing more than “despicable slandering.”

Beijing bought Royal Mint Court back in 2018. Local officials rejected the embassy plans in 2022, but China has been pushing hard ever since. President Xi Jinping even raised the issue directly with Prime Minister Keir Starmer last year, after the government stepped in to take control of the planning process. Photo by Chmee2, Wikimedia commons.