Author: Eleni Courea and Amy Hawkins

Exclusive: UK rebuild of Beijing embassy held up as Angela Rayner faces fraught decision on Royal Mint Court site China is blocking requests to rebuild the British embassy in Beijing while the fate of its controversial mega-embassy in east London is being decided, the Guardian can disclose. Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister and housing secretary, faces a politically fraught decision over whether to approve plans for a new Chinese embassy at Royal Mint Court. The Chinese government has resisted UK requests to carry out a major reconstruction of the British embassy in Beijing for at least a year on the basis that…