The proposed Chinese embassy in London is under renewed scrutiny as the government struggles to balance opportunity with security concerns in its stance to Beijing.

Following multiple delays, Keir Starmer is set to approve plans for the biggest Chinese embassy in Europe, after MI5 and MI6 declined to raise formal objections. But concerns persist over the site of the planned development, on the Royal Mint Court complex, next to “some of Britain’s most sensitive communications cables”, said The Times. These cables carry financial data to the City of London, as well as “email and messaging traffic for millions of internet users”.

According to The Telegraph, which has seen unredacted blueprints, China plans to build a network of “secret rooms” beneath the embassy, including a “hidden chamber” over the cables, “raising the prospect that they could be tapped”.

What did the commentators say?
“China won’t say what the basement is for,” cybersecurity expert Alan Woodward told The Telegraph. It could be “legitimate classified communications equipment”. But the demolition of the basement wall is a “red flag”. One possibility is that “China plans to install extensive computer infrastructure as part of an espionage operation”, said the paper. Security services have warned that Beijing is “carrying out mass espionage against British targets”, said The Times.

A group of Labour MPs has written to Housing Secretary Steve Reed to urge the government not to approve the embassy. Concerns remain “significant and unresolved”, including fears the complex could be used to “step up intimidation against diaspora and dissidents”, the letter said. Others have warned that the complex could jeopardise intelligence sharing with the US and the Five Eyes alliance.

But China will be “engaged in surveillance and interference operations whether it has a new embassy or not”, Nigel Inkster, from the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told Le Monde. “And it will probably be easier for British intelligence services to monitor its activities if they are all grouped together in one place.”

Beijing has previously denied all allegations of espionage at the site, and a UK government spokesperson told The Telegraph that all security implications “have been identified and addressed”.

What next?
Starmer is set to approve the plans by 20 January, ahead of a trip to Beijing, where a £100 million scheme to renovate the ageing British embassy is awaiting approval by the Chinese authorities.

Ofcom is deciding whether to follow Malaysia and Indonesia in blocking X’s AI chatbot Grok over fake sexualised images. The UK media regulator launched an investigation yesterday after receiving reports of Grok generating deepfake nudes of people without their consent, and could even recommend suspending access to X altogether.

What will Ofcom investigate?
It will look at whether X is in breach of the UK’s Online Safety Act, specifically whether non-consensual undressed images of people “may amount to intimate image abuse or pornography” and if AI-produced sexualised images of children “may amount to child sexual abuse material”.

Under the law, the regulator can fine businesses up to £18 million, or 10% of their global revenue, and take criminal action. It can also order payment providers, advertisers and internet service providers to stop working with a site, “effectively banning them, though this would require agreement from the courts”, said The Independent.

Technology Secretary Liz Kendall has said the regulator would have her “full support” to block access to X in the UK if the platform was found to be in breach of the law and refused to comply. “Other parties want Ofcom to move faster, or get out of the way,” said Politico. The Liberal Democrats are calling for the National Crime Agency “to take charge”, arguing that “the situation went well beyond Ofcom’s remit as communications watchdog”.

What has the reaction been?
Billionaire X owner Elon Musk said the UK government “wants any excuse for censorship”. But amid pressure to act, X last week limited access to Grok’s image generation tool to paid subscribers. Downing Street said the change had merely turned “the creation of unlawful images into a premium service” but was proof that X could move quickly to address the problem if it wanted.

Any ban would “cause uproar in Washington”, said The Telegraph. The White House has “become increasingly hawkish towards attempts to censor American companies and its citizens”. Blocking X in the UK could lead to the US sanctioning British officials, starting with those working at Ofcom, said The New Statesman’s US correspondent Freddie Hayward. Depending on the outcome of the Ofcom investigation, Keir Starmer “might have to accept that protecting free speech has become an issue of national security”.

Kimono-clad women take photos after their Coming of Age Day ceremony in Japan’s second-largest city, Yokohama. The centuries-old tradition is marked with a national holiday dedicated to celebrating all those who are turning 20, seen as the milestone between childhood and adulthood.

Franck Robichon / EPA / Shutterstock

Hotels and travel companies are increasingly offering “digital detox” retreats where guests agree to immerse themselves in an “internet-free environment”, usually in a beautiful setting, said The New York Times. On these “off-the-grid” experiences, laptops are banned and guests are encouraged on arrival to put their mobile devices into a safety deposit box. Here are some of the device-free retreats on offer.

Samsu
This collection of off-grid cabins in rural Ireland was set up by Rosanna Irwin in reaction to her “chronically online life”, said the BBC. The cabins have no Wi-Fi or other digital technology, “so the only tweets guests will hear are from the birds”. There are “simple cooking facilities”, and guests are provided with board games, books and a radio.

Unplugged
Like Irwin, Hector Hughes suffered from “burnout”, but he had an “epiphany” while on a technology break at a Buddhist retreat in the Himalayas. In 2020, Hughes co-founded Unplugged, a roster of “tech-detox cabins” (pictured above), complete with device lockboxes, scattered across the UK and Spain. 

The Detox Barn
Sisters Lauretta and Sharon Gavin run a series of weekend retreats in Suffolk at The Detox Barn. Despite the name, there are no “stuffy, silent classes” or “meals that leave your body rumbling with hunger”, said Condé Nast Traveller. Instead, guests can enjoy “delicious vegan meals”, “guided countryside walks” and sound bath experiences, in a laid-back environment with “plenty of laughs” (the sisters are a comedy double act). And of course: no phones allowed.

Beware the West’s Useful Idiots Over Iran
Steven Methven on Novara Media
The response of Western political elites to the Iranian protests has been “as gloopy, as slippery – and, above all, as thick – as mince”, writes Steven Methven. “‘Stand with the protesters’, they demand”, even though “there’s no organised resistance” and the collapse of the regime would only pave the way for “outside interests to carve up the country”. I’m with those who, “their hearts with the protesters”, nevertheless “refuse to be useful idiots for nakedly imperial powers”.

Sorry, trolls, the launch of Mattel’s autistic Barbie is its best doll yet
Victoria Richards in The Independent
My childhood dolls were “universally platinum blonde” with “tiny waists” and “even tinier outfits”, writes Victoria Richards. They now have wheelchairs and hearing aids, and this week, “it’s autism’s turn”. The “stereotyping” of the new Barbie, with a fidget spinner and headphones, is “a bit clunky”, but as the parent of a child with ASD, I’m delighted to see “elements of the condition” entering “into the mainstream”. As politicians spout about “overdiagnosis”, it’s “important to remind” autistic kids “that they belong”.

This generation of Britons couldn’t handle the death toll of a modern war
Mark Wallace in The i Paper
It’s been 80 years “since this country fought a war with a near-peer enemy power”, writes Mark Wallace. “We are culturally and psychologically unprepared” for the “price” of such a conflict – “in human life” and “in cold financial terms”. We must “snap out of it” and “ensure we have the tech, the troops” and “the will to successfully deter it from coming to pass”, rather than waiting for “our enemies” to issue “a wake-up call of their own”.