The Russian bear might be back but the Chinese dragon waits in the wings. Moscow’s spectacularly mismanaged invasion of Ukraine might have diverted Western attention away from Beijing but the CCP clearly poses a much greater long-term threat to the West than Putin’s kleptocratic regime. With that in mind, Mr S was intrigued to see the business minister Lord Callanan recently confirm that the People’s Republic of China is the registered owner of no less than 60 titles in the Greater London boundary.
Combined, they are likely worth a small fortune. Intrigued, Steerpike asked the punctilious pen-pushers over at the Land Registry for a list of all these properties. Unfortunately, it seems that while ministers are happy to reveal the number of China’s properties here in the great metropolis, bureaucratic beancounters are less keen on explaining their total worth and physical locations. A freedom of information request duly received a reply that blocked the release of the information on the grounds that it might imperil both ‘international relations’ and, er, ‘health and safety.’
Apparently, revealing where the PRC chooses to invest its wealth could ‘have a wider impact on the United Kingdom’s relations in relation to other states that own property’ here which could cause ‘other states [to] lose confidence in the United Kingdom.’
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