James Kynge

Even more extraordinary comment came from a Chinese academic at Renmin University in Beijing.

His name is Cui Shoujun, and he said that Canada was

must be feeling a lot of unease toward the U.S.

these days because, quote, if the U.S.

can claim Greenland, then it might lay claim to Canada.

I mean, just sort of extraordinarily bold statements coming out of Beijing.

I mean, just a reminder that this is an official newspaper, the China Daily.

And academics in China have a sort of semi-official status.

I mean, they're allowed to put their interpretation on things, but they're not allowed to stray too far from central government thinking in Beijing.

So I do think these are really very interesting.

Just before I come back to you, Alice, let me just go into Keir Starmer's visit at the end of the month.

That is also going to be a really big moment in UK-China relations if it goes ahead.

This is because it will be the first visit by a UK leader to China since 2018.

And because the visit is coming across, as it were, the issue of this Chinese mega embassy in London.

In case listeners are not familiar with this, it's a very big story in the UK.

The Chinese have a plan and they want approval for the plan to build a huge embassy right in the center of London, so close to the city of London, the financial district, which is the heart of London.

And part of this embassy is supposed to go over the fiber optic cables that

supply the city with all of its information and all of its data.

And so protesters and campaigners against this move have said that this is an unacceptable security risk.

In other words, China could either tap into the information or potentially even cut the cables.