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A decision on China\u2019s proposed mega embassy in London<\/a> is expected on Monday or Tuesday, with Chinese officials and British diplomats in Beijing holding their breath in anticipation of the planning application finally being approved.<\/p>\n The saga, which has been running since 2018, is widely expected to end with the British government giving the green light for construction. If it does, one group likely to be grateful is those who work in the British embassy\u2019s dilapidated building in Beijing. The UK\u2019s plans to redevelop its outpost in China\u2019s capital have been blocked for years<\/a> by the Chinese government because of the London embassy row.<\/p>\n The wrangling has \u201cenabled Beijing to raise the embassy controversy to block whatever requests London has made that Beijing is not comfortable about,\u201d said Steve Tsang, the director of the Soas China<\/a> Institute.<\/p>\n Beijing has made the embassy issue a priority in the UK-China relationship<\/a>. Xi Jinping, China\u2019s leader, raised the matter directly with Keir Starmer in their first phone call, in August 2024.<\/p>\n The process ending this week started in 2018 when China paid \u00a3255m for the site of the Royal Mint Court near the Tower of London, a prestigious piece of real estate, on which to build a sprawling diplomatic complex that would be its biggest in Europe. The deal was brokered by Eddie Lister, a close aide to Boris Johnson, at a time when Johnson was serving as foreign secretary. The Guardian revealed<\/a> last year that Johnson wrote to Wang Yi, China\u2019s top diplomat, to directly assure him the embassy plans would be approved.<\/p>\n The plans ran into trouble when Tower Hamlets council refused planning permission. The government declined to intervene and the application expired. Officials in Beijing were gobsmacked that state-to-state relations could be impeded by a local authority, an outcome unimaginable in China.<\/p>\n Tsang said: \u201cThe subsequent complications came to be seen as bad faith on the part of London. I doubt that [China] would have taken huge offence if the initial plan was rejected outright.\u201d<\/p>\n Prof Kerry Brown, the director of the Lau China Institute at King\u2019s College London, said China \u201cfelt they had an understanding that they bought this \u00a3250m place to use as an embassy \u2026 if there were going to be issues, they could have been told then.\u201d<\/p>\n Brown said the saga reflected a UK government that was \u201chot and cold on China\u201d. \u201cWhat was originally a relatively straightforward issue has become symbolically quite difficult,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n China reapplied for permission to build its embassy soon after Labour entered government. Ministers called in the decision, taking it out of the hands of the council, after Xi raised the matter directly with Starmer.<\/p>\n