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China has issued a stark warning that the UK 'will bear all the consequences' if its new London super embassy is not approved without delay.
Its foreign ministry has hit back in open fury at further delays to permission for its planned embassy in the heart of the City of London.
It warned ominously that the UK must 'must immediately fulfil its obligations and honour its commitments, otherwise the British side shall bear all the consequences'.
The country's enraged reaction followed the government's announcement last week that planning permission for what would be the largest embassy in Europe – at the site of the old Royal Mint – would be delayed again.
A postponed government decision had been expected next week but, in the midst of ongoing concerns about Chinese spying in Whitehall and controversy over the collapse of the Chinese spying trial, it has delayed a decision again until December.
Expressing his 'grave concern and strong dissatisfaction', Lin Jian, a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry told Bloomberg that the UK had shown a 'disregard for contractual spirit, acting in bad faith and without integrity'.
It follows strong condemnation from the Chinese Embassy last week which said it 'strongly deplored the UK's repeated postponement of the approved deadline for the new Chinese embassy project'.
It added: 'The UK's repeated delay in approving the application is groundless and unjustifiable.
It is an international obligation of the host country to provide support and facilitation for the construction of diplomatic premises.'
A row has rumbled on about the planned mega embassy since 2018 when China bought the 215,280 sq ft site for £255 million from the Crown Estate.
Security fears were immediately raised over the land's proximity to sensitive underground communications in the Square Mile.
Those who have fled Hong Kong's Chinese regime also fear the huge embassy would be used as a base to hunt them down.
Copies of plans with redacted basement rooms revealed in the Mail on Sunday also heightened fears about China's plans for the complex.
In 2022, the plans were turned down by Tower Hamlets Council but they were resubmitted and called in by Angela Rayner, then Housing Secretary, leading to accusations that the government would be swayed by Chinese government pressure to approve the plans.
Rayner's replacement Steve Reed was due to rule on the plans next week.
Meanwhile Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson's former Chief Adviser, told ITV News that UK security services were explicit that the mega embassy would be used as a 'spy centre'.
'So MI5 and MI6 said to me explicitly 'China is trying to build a spy centre underneath the embassy.
'It is an extremely bad idea to allow this to go ahead. It's particularly a bad idea given the exact location and various cables which run underneath London.
'Please will you try and help us to persuade the prime minister to kibosh this dreadful idea because other powerful parts of Whitehall don't want to have a row with China about it, particularly the Treasury.'