It was the site of Britain’s Royal Mint, where coins were struck from 1810 to 1975. It sits atop the ruins of a Cistercian abbey dating to the 14th century, as well as a burial ground from the Black Death. And from the 16th century to the early 18th century, it was a supply yard for the Royal Navy.

这里曾是英国皇家铸币厂的所在地，从1810年到1975年，硬币在这里铸造。铸币厂建在一个14世纪的西多会修道院的遗址，以及黑死病时期的一块墓地上。从16世纪到18世纪初，这里曾是皇家海军的补给站。

Now the storied compound known as Royal Mint Court is on the brink of a new chapter as the home of the Chinese Embassy in London. If Britain’s Labour government approves the project, as seems likely, China will move its embassy from its current quarters in Marylebone to an imposing, 5.5-acre complex across town, which would be the largest diplomatic outpost in Europe.

如今，这片被称为皇家铸币厂的传奇建筑群可能即将开启新的篇章，它将成为中国驻伦敦大使馆的所在地。如果英国的工党政府批准这个项目的话（这看来很有可能），中国将把大使馆从其目前所在的马里波恩搬到伦敦另一边这个占地逾33亩的宏伟壮观建筑群，它将是欧洲最大的外交前哨。

Handing Beijing such a prime piece of real estate, next to the Tower of London and in the shadow of the skyscrapers of London’s City, has set off a storm of opposition from neighborhood residents, China hawks in the British Parliament and Hong Kong democracy advocates who have resettled in Britain.

这块地离伦敦塔很近，位于伦敦金融城摩天大楼的影子之下，将位置这么好的地块交给北京，引发了附近居民、英国议会里的对华鹰派人士，以及定居英国的香港民主倡导者的强烈反对。

Some say China could use the embassy, with its proximity to strategic fiber-optic cables that snake under the financial district, to spy on dissidents and ordinary Britons. Others claim its location, on a busy road just off the Tower Bridge, would make it hard for crowds to gather to protest issues like Beijing’s crackdown on Hong Kong or its persecution of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.

一些人说，中国会用新建的使馆来监视异见人士和普通英国人，因为离使馆很近的金融区地下埋着长长的战略光缆。还有些人声称，新使馆位于伦敦塔桥附近一条繁忙的道路上，那会让人们聚集在使馆外举行抗议活动变得更加困难，比如抗议中国政府镇压香港的民主示威活动，或迫害新疆少数民族等问题。

“This is not just a building; this is an extension of the Chinese Communist Party’s power in the U.K.,” said Chloe Cheung, a representative of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, a pro-democracy group, as she spoke to more than 1,000 protesters who rallied at the site this month.

“这不只是一栋建筑；这是中国共产党在英国权力的延伸，”亲民主组织香港自由委员会基金会的代表张晞晴本月对 1000多名在该地点集会的抗议者发表讲话时说。

Ms. Cheung, who left Hong Kong in 2020, warned that the supersized embassy would be “about control, fear and silencing voices.” She noted that the Hong Kong authorities had offered a reward for her arrest.

张晞晴已在2020年离开了香港，她警告，这个超大型的大使馆将事关“控制、恐惧和噤声”。她指出，自己已遭到香港当局的悬赏通缉。

The protesters, many of whom, like Ms. Cheung, are immigrants from Hong Kong, brandished banners and placards that read, “CCP is Watching You. Stop the Mega Embassy!” But afterward, as they politely tidied up the site, several acknowledged there had been a shift in the political winds.

抗议者当中，许多人跟张晞晴一样是来自香港的移民，他们挥舞着横幅和标语牌，上面写着“中共在看着你。停止建造巨型大使馆！”但抗议结束后，当他们礼貌地清理现场时，几个人承认政治风向已经发生了变化。

In 2022, the borough council of Tower Hamlets denied permission for the project. But China resubmitted the proposal after the Labour Party swept into power last July. China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, raised the matter in a call with Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and Mr. Starmer later told him the government had “called in” the planning application, giving it the ultimate say on whether it gets a greenlight.

2022年，塔哈姆莱茨区议会曾拒绝批准这个项目。但工党去年7月大获全胜上台后，中国重新提交了申请。中国最高领导人习近平与英国首相基尔·斯塔默通电话时提出了这个问题，斯塔默后来告诉习近平，他的政府已“介入”规划申请，让它在是否批准的问题上有最终决定权。

A public inquiry on the proposal ended on Wednesday, and a decision by Housing Secretary Angela Rayner is expected by the summer.

对该项目的公开调查已于周三结束，住房大臣安杰拉·雷纳预计将在今年夏天做出决定。

Two of her fellow ministers — David Lammy, the foreign secretary, and Yvette Cooper, the home secretary — gave the plan provisional support last month. In a letter to the council, Mr. Lammy and Ms. Cooper noted that the Metropolitan Police had dropped an earlier objection that the site could not accommodate demonstrations without disrupting nearby roads.

她的两名同僚——外交大臣戴维·拉米和内政大臣伊薇特·库珀——上个月已对规划表示了初步支持。拉米和库珀在写给地方议会的信中指出，伦敦警察厅已撤销了早先的反对意见，警察厅曾认为该地点无法容纳示威活动而不影响附近道路通行。

“Given the importance of countries having functioning diplomatic premises in each other’s capitals,” they wrote, “it is right that China is able to carry out its diplomatic work in the United Kingdom, as the United Kingdom does in China.”

“考虑到各国在彼此首都设立功能性外交机构的重要性，”他们写道，“中国在英国开展外交工作是正当的，就像英国在中国做的一样。”

从左至右依次是英国外交大臣戴维·拉米、英国首相基尔·斯塔默、英国内政大臣伊薇特·库珀。拉米和库珀都对中国的新大使馆表示了暂时性地支持。

The Chinese Embassy in London did not respond to a request for comment. But last month, a spokeswoman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mao Ning, said, “It is the international obligation of host countries to provide support and facilitation for the building of diplomatic premises.”

中国驻伦敦大使馆没有回应置评请求。但上个月，中国外交部发言人毛宁表示，“东道国有国际义务为外交机构的建设提供支持和便利。”

Britain’s government has plenty of reasons to break the deadlock. The Chinese authorities have blocked Britain’s plans to rebuild its embassy in Beijing while they await approval for theirs. Britain is looking to China as a source of foreign investment at a time when its economy is stagnating and its relationship with the United States is uncertain. The chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, recently visited Beijing, drumming up 600 million pounds ($756 million) of commitments.

英国政府有充分的理由打破僵局。在等待英国政府批准建新使馆的同时，中国政府已停止了英国重建驻北京大使馆的计划。在经济停滞、与美国关系不确定的情况下，英国正在把中国视为外国投资的来源。财政大臣雷切尔·里夫斯最近访问了北京，获得了6亿英镑（约合55亿人民币）的投资承诺。

“There’s no question that British policy was very pro-China under David Cameron, then switched to being hostile toward China under subsequent governments, and now has switched back to being more accommodating,” said Tony Travers, professor of politics at the London School of Economics.

“毫无疑问，在戴维·卡梅伦执政期间，英国的对华政策非常友好，但之后的几届政府执政期间，英国的政策转向了对华敌视，现在又转回到了更为包容的态度，”伦敦政治经济学院政治学教授托尼·特拉弗斯说。

Mr. Cameron, a Conservative who was prime minister from 2010 to 2016, famously declared a “golden era” of economic ties between Britain and China. He took Mr. Xi out for a celebratory pint at a 16th-century pub.

卡梅伦是保守党人，曾于2010年至2016年担任英国首相，他做过一件很著名的事情，就是宣布英中经济关系进入了“黄金时代”。他曾带着习近平去了一家16世纪的酒吧喝酒庆祝。

By 2020, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, also a Conservative, had banned technology from the Chinese communications giant Huawei from Britain’s high-speed wireless network on national security grounds. He extended an offer to many Hong Kong residents to live and work in Britain; more than 150,000 have done so.

到2020年时，同样是保守党人的英国首相鲍里斯·约翰逊以国家安全为由，禁止中国通信设备巨头华为的技术进入英国的高速无线网络。他向许多香港居民发出了邀请，让他们到英国来生活和工作；目前已有逾15万人接受了邀请。

Professor Travers noted that it was a quirk of the London planning process that big building projects face three layers of scrutiny: local councils, the mayor’s office and the national government. “It touches micro planning issues at one end and ends up as a matter of high diplomacy on the other,” he said.

特拉弗斯指出，伦敦规划过程中的一件怪事是，大型建设项目面临三层审查：地方议会、市长办公室、国家政府。“这些审查的一头涉及微观规划问题，另一头则最终成为高级外交事务，”他说。

Chinese officials lobbied members of the council, sending them French wine, tea and, in one case, a Chinese-English children’s book, according to government records. (Some of the gifts were returned.) Critics in Parliament noted that China also orchestrated a letter-writing campaign that included submissions from brand-name companies like Bank of China and Air China.

根据政府的记录，中国官员曾向地方议会成员游说，向他们赠送法国葡萄酒、茶叶，还有一次送了本中英双语的儿童读物。（一些礼物已被退回。）英国议会里的批评者指出，中国还策划了一场写信运动，其中包括来自中国银行、中国国际航空等知名企业的信件。

英国财政大臣雷切尔·里夫斯与中国副总理何立峰握手。里夫斯在上个月访问了北京，寻求争取商业承诺。

The Tower Hamlets council is unusual in that it is not controlled by an established political party, but by an independent party, Aspire. Having voted to reject the embassy in 2022, some councilors complained that the government was brushing aside their concerns, including fears that the Chinese could tap into sensitive communications lines that run into the City of London.

塔哈姆莱茨议会的不同寻常之处是，它不由一个存在已久的政党控制，而是由独立政党Aspire控制。2022年投票否决了新建大使馆的方案后，一些议员曾抱怨说，政府无视他们的担忧，包括担心中国人可能窃听通往伦敦金融城的敏感通信线路。

“We’ve been pushed into a corner,” said Peter Golds, a Conservative council member who took part in the protest. “We said we don’t want it, repeatedly. And suddenly the government are overruling us.”

“我们已被逼入墙角，”参加抗议活动的保守党议员彼得·戈尔兹说。“我们多次说不想要使馆。突然间，政府正在推翻我们的决定。”

Critics said they were puzzled that the police dropped their concerns about protests outside the embassy. They also asked why the British government was taking such a solicitous approach toward Beijing after an incident in 2022 when a pro-democracy demonstrator was dragged on to the grounds of the Chinese Consulate in Manchester and beaten by staff members.

批评人士称，警方不再考虑使馆外抗议活动的问题令他们不解。他们还想知道，2022年曾发生了一个事件：一名支持民主的示威者被拖进曼彻斯特中国领事馆的院子，遭到工作人员殴打，在发生了这种事情后，为什么英国政府仍对中国表现出如此殷勤的态度。

“It is simply the wrong place for this embassy to be,” said Tom Tugendhat, a Conservative who served as security minister and is one of China’s most vocal critics in Parliament. “But it is also the wrong thing to have,” he said, adding, “We already have too much state repression, too much influence, too much aggression.”

“这个地方根本不适合建大使馆，”保守党人汤姆·图根哈特说，他曾担任安全大臣，是英国议会中对华最直言不讳的批评者之一。“但这也是一件不该有的事情，”他说，并补充道，“我们已经承受了太多的国家镇压、太多的外部影响力，太多的攻击性。”

Government officials pointed out that Mr. Lammy and Ms. Cooper did not offer the project unqualified support. In their letter, they said approval should be contingent on making a design change to the front of the embassy, where the Chinese want to construct a viewing area for the Cistercian ruins.

政府官员指出，拉米和库珀并没有对项目提供无条件的支持。他们在信中说，批准的条件是改变使馆建筑前部的设计，中国想在使馆建筑前部建一个观看西多会遗址的露台。

Opening part of the complex to the public, they said, would raise safety concerns and they urged China to surround it with a “hard perimeter.” A lawyer for the Chinese government told the public inquiry that China had no intention of altering the design — by a prominent British architect, David Chipperfield — to accommodate the ministers’ concerns.

他们说，向公众开放建筑群的一部分将带来安全问题，并敦促中国将建筑群围在“坚固的墙”里。中国政府的一名律师在公开调查的听证会上表示，中国不想为了顺应大臣们的要求改变设计，新使馆是英国著名建筑师戴维·奇普菲尔德设计的。

At the inquiry and demonstration, there was a palpable sense that the embassy’s opponents had probably lost their battle. Some said their biggest hope now was a change in government in Britain. But Mr. Starmer’s Labour Party does not have to face the voters for more than four years.

在调查和示威活动中有一种明显的感觉，即反对建新使馆的人可能已经在这场斗争中失败了。有的人说，他们现在最大的希望是英国更换政府。但斯塔默领导的工党在未来四年多的时间里都不必面对选民。

“An American government wouldn’t permit it,” Mr. Golds said. “Can you imagine building a Chinese embassy right by Wall Street?”

“美国政府是不会批准的，”戈尔兹说。“你能想象在华尔街边上建中国大使馆吗？”