Kate Chi

Hongkonger, we fight

[Kate Chi @chichungkate]

@sanchezcastejon pls clean your own shit

[Kate Chi @chichungkate]

@Telegraph who don't

[Luke de Pulford @lukedepulford]

This is Jimmy Lai.

[Sky News @SkyNews]

BREAKING: Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper has urged Hong Kong authorities to release Jimmy Lai on humanitarian grounds, after the pro-democracy campaigner was sentenced to 20 years in prison after being convicted of national security offences.

https://t.co/tFzLLyrGNQ

📺 Sky 501

[Kate Chi @chichungkate]

@FCDOGovUK what a cheap cost, everyone can use ai to generate this statement, remember our PM has just backed from China for asking insulting. Do something and stop talking.

[Priti Patel MP @pritipatel]

The persecution, conviction and sentencing of Jimmy Lai by the Chinese Communist Party is an outrage. He is a courageous and brave advocate for the freedoms Hong Kongers should have but have been denied. My thoughts are with him and his family as they come to terms with this cruel and barbaric 20 year sentence.

The Prime Minister Keir Starmer and the Labour Government should be ashamed of themselves for not securing the release of Jimmy. Spineless Starmer gave the Chinese Communist Party their super embassy spyhub and then went to Beijing to kowtow to President Xi begging for Chinese investment.

While Starmer came back to Britain bragging about securing a deal for Labubu dolls, Jimmy languishes in prison. Starmer’s failure to stand up to Chinese threats has undermined our interests and our security and he now has no leverage to pressure the Chinese to release Jimmy.

Conservatives will continue to fight for Jimmy to be released, oppose China’s super embassy and call for action to be taken to defend Britain from the CCP’s threats.

https://t.co/deK1JKsPtP

[Luke de Pulford @lukedepulford]

#NEW Mega-embassy judicial review claimants write to @GOVUK demanding disclosure of Government documents.

It’s going to get messy.

https://t.co/m8GjnymEpf

[Kate Chi @chichungkate]

@Keir_Starmer I don't believe in Trump till I see this post

[Luke de Pulford @lukedepulford]

❗️Mega-embassy judicial review fund already over 40k! Let's gooooooo!!!
🦾

https://t.co/n5rXXRQxOz

[Visegrád 24 @visegrad24]

Scandal in the UK. China is building a spy hub next to its embassy

The new Chinese embassy super-complex in London reportedly includes around 200 secret rooms. One of them, a 40-square-meter underground chamber, is located right next to fibre-optic cables serving the financial district. The room is designed with powerful hot and cold air extraction systems, suggesting it could house supercomputers.

China has been trying to redevelop the former Royal Mint complex near the Tower of London since 2018. Xi Jinping has reportedly raised this issue multiple times in phone calls with Keir Starmer.

Plans to build what would be China’s largest embassy in Europe were rejected in 2022 by the Tower Hamlets council. However, last year the project was transferred for review to a relevant ministry.

Less than two weeks after Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ visit to China, the position shifted: Tower Hamlets withdrew its objections. And according to The Guardian, China is now likely to get the deal approved before Starmer's visit to Beijing at the end of this month.

🇨🇳🇬🇧

[The Telegraph @Telegraph]

🚨 The Telegraph obtains unredacted plans showing how close the underground complex will come to cables carrying sensitive British financial data

Look at the uncovered plans below ⬇️
https://t.co/DO35bujFP2

[Luke de Pulford @lukedepulford]

Here are the cables the government said didn’t exist. Images from the @Telegraph report today.

A reminder to everyone that after @Richard_AHolmes broke the story about the 🇨🇳 mega-embassy cabling last Jan, government special advisors denied *all of it* and tried to rubbish his reputation to others in govt and Fleet Street. The @FCDOGovUK was particularly bad.

Shamefully, they did the same when @cazjwheeler wrote about the risk posed to financial services months later.

MPs and Peers who raised concerns were dismissed. “We don’t recognise these reports” was the Ministerial refrain.

There have now been no fewer than TEN entirely independent media reports into the existence of these cables, and the risk of Chinese state proximity posed by them. This includes a BBC report, correctly asserting that Barclays Global HQ and BlackRock (and Deloitte) were housed *in the building* before the Chinese bought it.

Recall that Holmes’ first report was that *intelligence agencies had raised concerns about the cables during the first mega embassy application (2022)*. Given that these companies, obviously requiring access to high capacity financial infrastructure, were in the building, it stands to reason there would be concern regarding CCP interference in that infrastructure.

Still, the story was denied. It gets worse: senior US official was told in terms last August “there are no cables” by Foreign Office officials.

Only a month ago, following sustained pressure from other governments, the UK was forced to release a report to 5 Eyes partners detailing the risk posed by the cabling. “Nothing to see here” says the report.

Meanwhile it is clear that “mitigating” the cabling issue is itself problematic. The Chinese own the building, and permission will be required from them to excavate.

Re-routing them will cost the taxpayer many millions. Of course no details about this have been forthcoming from the government, which seems to think that the performative “the reports aren’t accurate, but we can’t tell you why because…national security” routine will be enough to deflect.

This has been a case study in executive obfuscation, made worse by truly disreputable attempts to smear the journalists exposing it.

I have a hard time believing that any UK government would treat our allies and press this way, just to avoid the inconvenience of upsetting the Chinese, but I am struggling to interpret it any other way.

[Politics UK @PolitlcsUK]

🚨 NEW: The proposed Chinese super-embassy includes a secret basement room just a metre away from Britain's most sensitive communication cables

[@Telegraph]

[Oli London @OliLondonTV]

Iranian women are risking their lives to fight for their freedoms.

Where are all the Western feminists around the world to support them?

Beyoncé?

Taylor Swift?

Angelina Jolie?

Emma Watson?

They are SILENT.

[Kate Chi @chichungkate]

@TRobinsonNewEra It’s always darkest before the dawn. They will win 🙏🏻

[Dr. Maalouf ‏ @realMaalouf]

What kind of culture treats and humiliates women like this?

[Luke de Pulford @lukedepulford]

Wow: reported here that Starmer’s January China visit is conditional on approving the mega-embassy.

Meanwhile Beijing coerces our embassy in China, switching off water and electricity and refusing to allow much needed renovations.

The choice before Starmer is clear:

Allow Beijing to build a colossal national security threat in the centre of London, or:

A) Britain’s diplomatic HQ in China will be coerced to dysfunction;

B) There will be no economic preferment for Britain.

Has anyone in the UK government stopped to ask why Beijing is making such a diplomatic priority of this? Why they want it so much? For goodness’ sake, wake up. This embassy represents a major geopolitical victory for China and will be a significant strategic asset. It will harm UK interests and have knock on effects for our allies.

Leaving aside the highly questionable predicate that China will (or can) help the UK economy, are we really going to allow ourselves to be bullied into accepting this?

Join us on 17th January, 2pm, at Royal Mint Court to protest this madness.
https://t.co/3aCvxQQb4R

[BBC News (World) @BBCWorld]

A Hong Kong man asked for accountability after a deadly fire. So why was he arrested? https://t.co/6UQ5iEhyDL