Thousands gathered in London on Saturday for a rally against China’s planned “mega-embassy” project.
The demonstrators called out China’s human rights abuses against oppressed groups like the Uyghurs and Tibetans, and said the mega-embassy could become a headquarters for surveillance against dissidents abroad.
China already has a fully functioning embassy in London, but in 2018 the Chinese government purchased the Royal Mint Court, a historic structure that began as an abbey for an austere order of Catholic monks known as the Cistercians in the 14th Century.
As the name implies, the abbey became the primary location for the British Royal Mint from 1810 to 1975. The Royal Mint closed its last offices at the site in 2000, by which time the massive
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