Observing China is the essential newsletter to understand the UK-PRC relationship, explained in the context of global developments.
Would you approve the construction of a foreign embassy if parts of the building plan handed to you were blacked out? Whitehall has until 9th September to decide whether or not to approve Beijing’s request for a super-size embassy in London. The two buildings which were redacted on the architectural plans were the innocuous-sounding ‘Cultural Exchange’ and ‘Embassy House’.
It is a little unsettling to fill in the blanks of what this might mean. Whitehall has given the current Chinese embassy in the United Kingdom (UK) two weeks to provide details of the purpose of these two buildings.
Elsewhere, Chinese engineers at Zhejiang University released a supercomputer called ‘Darwin Monkey’, which mimics the workings of a macaque’s brain. It is the world’s first brain-like supercomputer, marking a big leap forwards for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in its technology race against the United States (US).
Welcome back to Observing China.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Observing China to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.