00:00Could London's new Chinese embassy endanger Hong Kong's exiled activists?
00:04London is getting a new Chinese embassy.
00:06It will occupy 20,000 square meters,
00:09making it the largest of its kind in Europe when it's opened.
00:12But prominent Hong Kong pro-democracy activists,
00:14who escaped Chinese crackdowns,
00:16told DW that they are worried it will put them in danger.
00:19I'm an exiled activist.
00:21I actually still have a bounty on my head.
00:23Actually the fight was very intimidating.
00:26Simon Chung is a former British consulate employee in Hong Kong.
00:29This photo was taken just before he was detained and tortured by Chinese authorities for 15 days
00:34during the 2019 pro-democracy protests.
00:38He later fled to London and was granted asylum in the UK.
00:41We worry about our own safety because it seems emboldening them to go forward to target us.
00:49For Simon, transnational repression remains an ever-present threat.
00:53I've already been feeling not safe at all and I feel being followed.
00:59He is worried that the new embassy means that activists such as himself could become a target,
01:04as embassy grounds belong to China and are no longer under UK jurisdiction.
01:08You have seen that some senior diplomats, even the consul general,
01:14with their staff can draft protesters on their grounds and beat them.
01:21Hong Kong democracy activist Carmen Lau also agreed to meet with DW.
01:26A former elected district councillor in Hong Kong, she fled to London in 2021.
01:29The Chinese government has since put a 100,000 Hong Kong dollar bounty on her.
01:35My neighbours here in the UK received letters, anonymous letters from Macau and Hong Kong about me.
01:43One was about the million dollar bounty and there was also a paragraph encouraging my neighbours to turn me in
01:55to the Chinese embassy.
01:56Carmen's neighbours also received this letter featuring AI generated explicit images of her and her address.
02:02There were five images with my face on it of, you know, sexual acts and portraying me as a sex
02:12worker.
02:13The incidents left her feeling so unsafe that she's now moving and changing her address regularly to protect herself.
02:19I still also received, you know, death threats and rape threats as well.
02:24And there were numerous phishing and hacking attempts on every of my accounts.
02:30She's worried that a new and larger embassy could increase targeted harassment of her and other exiled Hong Kongers.
02:36If the British government allows, like, the largest embassy in Europe to be built in London by the Chinese regime,
02:47that would pose a very significant threat to the diaspora here.
02:54It means that it allows more personnel to be, you know, to be operated under the umbrella of the Chinese
03:05embassy.
03:06For Carmen, even joining the protests against the embassy came with apparent attempts to scare her into silence.
03:11Just three days after, my aunt and my uncle back home were being taken to the police station for interrogation
03:25in Hong Kong by the National Security Police.
03:32The United Kingdom gave China's new embassy plan the green light in January 2026.
03:38It will be built here on the site of the former Royal Mint.
03:41The site was bought by China in 2018 at a cost of 255 million pounds or 298 million euros.
03:49Since then, there's been significant debate about increased spying and surveillance.
03:53This is in addition to concerns about physical proximity to fibre optic data carrying cables close to the city of
03:59London.
03:59But China expert Charles Parton told DW that he believes the concern is overblown.
04:05Given the way the Chinese like to keep the control of their people,
04:08it's got to be very big because most people will be living on site.
04:12That doesn't give you a lot of choice in London.
04:15This is the last place you'd put someone if you snatch them off the streets
04:19because the embassies tend to be subject to considerable surveillance.
04:23There are plenty of things where we should be holding the Chinese to account and attacking them for their behaviour
04:29or defending ourselves against this and that.
04:32But let's concentrate the fire on the things that really matter and the embassy isn't one of them.
04:37But for Simon Chung, it's the very symbolism of the soon to be building that leaves him fearful.
04:42I might need to think twice whenever time that if I just walk by here around this area.
04:48With a full approval for the embassy from the British government including its intelligence agencies,
04:54for now activists like Carmen and Simon will just have to keep living with their concerns alone.
04:58See you soon.
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