China’s humiliating loss to Britain in the Opium Wars two centuries ago ushered in a burning desire for vengeance. Beijing’s increasingly aggressive ambitions to avenge those losses — and not just symbolically — got a big boost on Tuesday with approval of a billion-dollar super-sized embassy in the heart of London from a Britain that appears to be sliding its way to economic irrelevancy.
Desperate for economic growth following the calamitous Brexit decision to pull out of the European Union, London has kowtowed to Beijing. In the face of intense opposition, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government nevertheless gave the go-ahead to what critics deride as a “spy nest.”
China will take over the Royal Mint building next to the historic Tower of London and spend over $1 billion building out its largest embassy in Europe. Starmer is expected to visit Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing at the end of this month and hopes to return with promises of increased trade and investment.
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