News
How the
British establishment got sucked into a Chinese spy scandal
The prince,
the prime ministers and the spy: what we know about the scandal gripping the
U.K.
December 17,
2024 4:01 am CET
By Mason
Boycott-Owen, Sophie Inge and Dan Bloom
LONDON —
Following days of speculation, Chinese businessperson Yang Tengbo has outed
himself as the alleged spy at the center of a scandal gripping the U.K.
establishment.
The
50-year-old came clean after reports emerged at the weekend that he had been
banned from entering the U.K. in 2023, when he was accused of engaging in
“covert and deceptive activity” on behalf of the Chinese state. He was assessed
at the time as posing a “threat to U.K. national security.”
In the years
before his entry was curtailed, Yang had enjoyed high access to prominent
figures in the British establishment, including members of the royal family and
the most senior politicians and business leaders.
A court
order was lifted Monday after speculation swirled online about the identity of
the alleged spy, known only as “H6,” and with MPs threatening to use the
ancient right of parliamentary privilege, which protects them from prosecution,
to name him in parliament.
The scandal
first erupted Saturday, when it emerged Yang had enjoyed a close friendship
with King Charles III’s brother, Prince Andrew, who is already a figure of
disgrace in the U.K. over his close ties to the late American pedophile Jeffrey
Epstein.
Yang was
also reported to have met former prime ministers David Cameron and Theresa May
during close to two decades living and working in Britain, before being barred
by an immigration tribunal on security grounds, a ruling he had challenged.
In a
statement Monday, Yang said he was no longer seeking to remain anonymous and
had done “nothing wrong or unlawful.” He added: “The widespread description of
me as a ‘spy’ is entirely untrue.
“I built my
private life in the U.K. over two decades and love the country as my second
home. I would never do anything to harm the interests of the U.K.”
An explosive
dossier
Details of
Yang’s friendship with Andrew were revealed in an explosive court dossier.
The document
revealed that the businessperson, while in close contact with the Chinese
embassy, had cultivated a relationship with the prince, conducting business in
secret in venues as grand as Buckingham Palace.
A letter to
Yang from Dominic Hampshire, a senior adviser to Prince Andrew, was discovered
by U.K. security officials on his phone. It said that, in the mind of the royal
and his family, “you sit at the very top of a tree that many, many people would
like to be on.”
The
correspondence added that the prince and Hampshire had “found a way to
carefully remove those people who we don ’t completely trust. Under your
guidance, we found a way to get the relevant people unnoticed in and out of the
house in Windsor,” a reference to Andrew’s palatial residence near Windsor
Castle. The revelation has triggered calls for a security review of the
advisers working for Andrew and other royals.
Born in
China in around 1974, Yang moved to the U.K. to study, ultimately gaining a
master’s degree in public administration from York University in 2003.
He
anglicized his name to “Chris Yang” and set up a company helping business
leaders in Beijing to network internationally. Among his work in the U.K. was a
role helping to organize the first U.K.-China Business Leaders’ Summit, where
he rubbed shoulders with then-Chancellor George Osborne.
Along with
the prime minister of the day, David Cameron, Osborne was a proponent of the
“golden era” of positive relations between Beijing and London, which some
Conservatives now believe naively under-estimated the risk to British national
security.
Yang rose to
become the head of the Chinese arm of Prince Andrew’s entrepreneur business
scheme Pitch@Palace, alongside his own business Hampton Group, which had
contracts with China’s state broadcaster. Yang was said to have been to
Buckingham Palace, the King’s most prestigious residence, on at least two
occasions as a guest of the prince.
“Useful
idiot”
Andrew was
forced to pull out from his family’s Christmas celebrations, British newspapers
reported on Sunday, amid public anger over his role in a second major scandal
in five years. He was labeled as “one of
Beijing’s so-called ‘useful idiots’” by former Conservative MP Bob Seely, as
lawmakers in the House of Commons held a fiery debate over how, as former Tory
Leader Iain Duncan Smith put it, “someone who was known to the security
services was allowed to get so close to a member of the royal family.”
Duncan Smith
told his fellow MPs the alleged spy was not a “lone wolf” but one of 40,000
members of the United Front Works Department, an arm of the Chinese Communist
Party which seeks to wield influence abroad.
Sari Arho
Havrén, a specialist in China’s foreign relations at the RUSI think tank, told
POLITICO: “A close relationship with Prince Andrew could serve multiple
purposes — ‘elite capture’ for one. These are influential people who can speak
positively on behalf of the Chinese government, potentially influence the royal
family from within, and thus act as a Beijing-friendly power base within the
U.K.
“A close
relationship with Prince Andrew can also open doors to other meaningful
contacts and people where a close relationship to a member of the royal family
works as a gateway and guarantee of reliability.
“And here,
Yang was quite successful, as he did gain access to senior politicians, for
instance former prime ministers.”
Political
damage
As well as
royalty, Yang was photographed meeting two former prime ministers, Cameron and
fellow Tory Theresa May, during his ascent to the highest echelons of British
society. Their spokespeople said neither had any recollection of meeting the
alleged spy, due to the high number of people they were introduced to in the
course of their duties.
It was
reported in 2018 that Yang was also a backer of a fashion firm established by
the late American-British businessperson Barbara Judge — once described as “one
of the best-connected women in Britain.”
News of the
spy scandal could not have come at a worse time for Keir Starmer’s government,
which is seeking to thaw Britain’s frosty relationship with China after years
of bad-tempered exchanges between the state and the previous Conservative
administration.
Starmer on
Monday admitted that his government was “concerned about the challenge that
China poses.” However, ministers appear wary of labeling China a threat to the
U.K. as the new PM seeks to foster a deeper trading relationship in order to
meet his own domestic plans for growth.
David Lammy,
the foreign secretary, welcomed the court’s decision to uphold the ban on Yang
coming to the U.K., stressing that Britain would take action where “individuals
pose a threat,” and adding: “This case does not exist, sadly, in a vacuum.”
The Labour
government has made a series of attempts at a rapprochement with Beijing since
coming to power, with Starmer last month becoming the first U.K. prime minister
to meet President Xi Jinping in person since 2018. His visit came after Foreign
Secretary David Lammy visited China in October — only the second such visit in
six years — with Energy Secretary Ed Miliband and Chancellor Rachel Reeves
expected to follow in 2025.
Delayed
The
developments come as the government seeks to complete its so-called “China
Audit” of its foreign policy stance towards Beijing. POLITICO reported in
October that work on the assessment of the relationship is due to wrap up early
next year.
The China
audit is also set to include further details of the U.K.’s register of foreign
lobbyists — the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme (FIRS) — as part of an
effort to shield British interests from foreign actors such as Russia, Iran,
and China.
FIRS has
been held up, as government officials and ministers grapple over whether to
designate China as a threat in the scheme.
On Monday
the Times reported China would be spared from being put in the “enhanced” tier
of the FIRS scheme, which would require greater scrutiny of the state’s
involvement in U.K. businesses and institutions, while Reuters reported that
the government was set to fast-track its refresh of China relations in order to
get on with its economic priorities.
Steve Tsang,
director of the SOAS university’s China Institute, said: “With so much China is
doing, something is bound to become known at some point that will require the
reset button being pressed again. How many times this button can be pressed is
a political issue, not a physical one.
“Beijing
will not like the public backlash against the news of the infiltration, but
there is not a lot it can actually do unless it is prepared to see [the]
relationship worsen.
“It is not
in the interest of either government to put U.K.-China relations on a downward
spiral at the moment, so Beijing may try not to react too much, unless the
issue snowballs in the U.K. and it gets too embarrassing for Beijing to avoid a
direct response.”
John
Johnston contributed to this report.
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