The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) has not confirmed whether it will be extended, casting fresh doubt on the development.
New Zealand and China signed a “conditions of construction agreement” in 2015, allowing each country to facilitate embassy projects.
New Zealand completed its new $50m Beijing embassy in 2019, but the 10-year agreement lapsed in 2025 without China starting its project.
MFAT said it had been communicating with the Chinese Embassy, but would not confirm whether it planned to extend the agreement, saying last month it “remain[s] in discussions with China”.
Despite the project’s resource consent, Wellington’s new water provider Tiaki Wai said relocating or building over the wastewater pipe would require its approval, and it had received no applications.
Initial plans included the chancery and ambassador’s residence in multiple two to three-storey buildings over nearly a block of central Wellington land.
If built, it would be the largest foreign embassy in the country, and represent a significant expansion from the Chinese Embassy’s current 3661sq m site on Glenmore St in Thorndon.
New Zealand’s spy agencies have become increasingly open about naming China as undertaking spying on our shores.
The New Zealand Security Intelligence Service’s 2026 report stated the service had detected China conducting espionage “at scale” in New Zealand.
In the United Kingdom, China’s plans for a “super embassy” project have been held up by court action from opponents, who fear the two-hectare site is an espionage threat.
University of Canterbury Professor Anne-Marie Brady has raised similar concerns, telling the Herald the grand embassy plans will “enable China to expand its espionage, transnational repression, and foreign interference activities in New Zealand”.
Brady specialises in Chinese domestic and foreign politics, and has been an outspoken critic of the Chinese Government’s foreign interference activities in New Zealand.
She said the size of the complex’s size will make it “impossible” for New Zealand security agencies to monitor its activities, and fears it would enable expansion of intelligence surveillance, recruitment and information collection.
“Our public defence assessments have already stated that if a hostile power was to establish a military base or intelligence presence in the Pacific, it would have an immediate threat to NZ security, why then would we permit China to build such a large facility on NZ soil?” she said.
Ethan Manera is a Wellington-based journalist covering Wellington issues, local politics and business in the capital. He can be emailed at ethan.manera@nzme.co.nz.