Former CIA Operative Reacts: UK Approves Communist China's Mega-Embassy in London

And joining us now to discuss the UK and Canada's recent cozying up with communist China is J. Michael Waller. He's a former CIA operative and senior analyst for strategy at the Centre for Security Policy. He'll also explore President Trump's push to acquire Greenland and US-Europe relations. Michael, thank you so much for joining us. Great to have you here now. First off, reports note that Chinese Communist leader Xi Jinping personally asked British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to intervene after the embassy was stalled for three years. The approval also comes ahead of an expected visit to China by Starmer this month, the first by a British leader since 2018, with officials from both sides saying the trip was dependent on this embassy's approval. How are you reading this and the security concerns this raises for you? Well, huge security concerns. This embassy is going to be five acres of floor space right in the middle of London, right on the side of the Old Mint, and right on top of the financial district and the fiber optic cables that govern the central capital of our most important ally. And digging into this, we have MI5, Britain's spy agency, has warned of broader threats from China, but hasn't raised formal objections over this embassy. Now, the government said intelligence agencies have devised a range of protective security measures. Could the embassy impact US, UK intel sharing? Sure, absolutely. It would compromise really everything if you have the Chinese having such a huge complex in the core of the capital of our, again, of our ally, which we rely on so much. I mean, there's a reason why Communist China is demanding that embassy in exchange for Starmer's desperate desire to visit Xi Jinping. Now, Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters who have fled to Britain for their safety have been raising concerns over this embassy. And we've seen more broadly, the Chinese Communist Party has been carrying out transnational repression and monitoring of dissidents abroad, like adherents of the spiritual practice Falun Gong, Tibetans and others over the years. How could the creation of this mega embassy impact Chinese dissidents living in London? Right now, the Chinese diplomatic facilities in London are nearly a dozen buildings scattered around London, and now it's all centralized once they have this new embassy in place. This means that the CCP will have extraterritorial capabilities in one central location, meaning free of British surveillance, to go out and not only spy on the British and on us and our allies, but also to repress Chinese emigres, Chinese exiles, Chinese refugees, and anybody subscribing to beliefs that the CCP is against. The regime is going to be spying on them now through this embassy in London. Quite concerning indeed. We also saw Canada strike several deals with China, including around Chinese EVs and inviting Chinese security forces to cooperate on countering crime. Are these US allies softening their security stance on China? Well, the whole world had really softened its stance on China, including the United States under various administrations. It's nice to see from your earlier report now that these European countries are taking heed of Trump's warnings from his first administration, probably kicking and screaming while they did it. But it's really important. We have an unfortified border with Canada. What's going to happen now with Canada opening up so much to Communist China? What kind of deals is the Prime Minister of Canada, who's really no friend of the United States, what kind of deals is he making? When he was head of a trillion-dollar company not just a year ago, he was cutting deals with China. He was cutting financing from the Communist Party. What's he doing now? Rather than try to mend fences with the United States, he's trying to divide Canada from the United States by joining forces with the CCP. A lot to watch for there. Zooming out though, President Trump has been raising concerns over Russia and China when it comes to Greenland. Do you see the moves by the UK and Canada with China impacting the conversation around the future of Greenland? Yes, because it's colossally bad timing. One of the main reasons the United States is so concerned about Greenland is not just what the Russians would be able to do there and how we need Greenland to defend against the Russian missile attack, but because the CCP is developing its own Arctic Ocean capability, its own ice-breaking fleet. It's not an Arctic power, but it's going to be using the Arctic as a shortcut for not only its trade, but for its growing naval power projection. So for the NATO alliance to be divided so sharply the way it is right now, it's terrible timing for the Prime Minister of Canada, and now the Prime Minister of the UK, to go and kowtow to Xi Jinping. It's just what Xi wants to do. To your point, China also declared itself a near-Arctic state back in 2018, so there's that element as well. Now, you've said that Denmark has been in violation of Article 3 of the NATO treaty. What does that mean exactly? How could this impact Trump's plans for the island? Well, it was a former ambassador, American ambassador to Denmark, who raised this just today, and that is that the NATO treaty, we hear about Article 5, which is the part of the mutual defense that kicks in if a member is attacked. But Article 3 requires every member of the alliance to do everything possible to defend its own territory on its own and in partnership with the rest of the allies in mutual defense. Denmark has completely failed to protect Greenland. It has relied on us to protect Greenland since the end of World War II. So what could we see with that? For instance, you had President Trump saying Denmark sent a second dogsled to protect the island. It's true. In their defense budget of a year or so ago, they voted to have a second dogsled team to patrol. Denmark doesn't have a permanent ship home port presence there for its navy. It doesn't have even permanent helicopters in Greenland. It has dogsled teams and about 150 military, both civilian and uniformed, and that's it for that whole huge island. So Denmark has really violated its terms of its NATO agreement. It has shown that it's unwilling to protect Greenland and is unable to protect Greenland. I had some Danish military officers tell me a year ago that there's no way that Denmark can protect Greenland. At some point, if the Greenlanders decide to vote for independence, 57,000 people, that would immediately take them out of NATO. What would that do? Who would be, say, prone to funding different movements like independence movements? Not the United States, not the Europeans, but the CCP is funding these movements all around the world. A lot at stake for sure. Jake Michael Waller, thank you so much for joining us. Good to be with you.