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3 weeks ago
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The alleged Chinese spy who got close to Prince Andrew as a way to gain access to the UK establishment has been named as Yang Tengbo, a businessman also known as Chris Yang.
Yang, whose identity was previously protected by an anonymity order, can be named after judge lifted the ban on Monday afternoon.
Yang, 50, the former chair of Hampton Group, had been in the UK for almost two decades.
He was first stopped by counter-terrorism services in 2021 and ordered to surrender his devices. Court documents said Yang had split his time between China and the UK and told officials he considered the UK his second home.
In February 2023, Yang was “off-boarded” from a flight from Beijing to London and told the home secretary was in the process of examining the case to exclude him from the UK. That order was made the following month. His appeal against the decision was rejected last week by the special immigration appeals tribunal (Siac).
Details of Yang’s close links to the Duke of York emerged last week in the Siac ruling.
The businessman had visited the UK regularly, attending events at a series of royal residences, including Andrew’s birthday party at his home. The hearing heard Yang was barred because he was believed to be associated with China’s united front work department, which seeks to gather intelligence on influential overseas nationals. The ruling said in his witness statement Yang had “downplayed his links” with the group.
In a statement on Friday, Andrew’s office said he had stopped all contact with the man, whom he had met through “official channels” with “nothing of a sensitive nature ever discussed”.
According to court documents, the businessman was so close to the Duke of York he was authorised to act on his behalf in an international financial initiative with potential partners and investors in China.
In the judgment that upheld his exclusion from the UK the judge found Yang “won a significant degree, one could say an unusual degree, of trust from a senior member of the royal family who was prepared to enter into business activities with him”.
When the businessman’s phone was searched, officials uncovered a letter from March 2020 from Dominic Hampshire, a senior adviser to Prince Andrew, which referred to him being invited to the duke’s birthday party that month and said: “Outside of his closest internal confidants, you sit at the very top of a tree that many, many people would like to be on.”
The letter also suggested the relationship had a potentially secretive nature, and said: “We have found a way to carefully remove those people who we don’t completely trust … we found a way to get the relevant people unnoticed in and out of the house in Windsor.”
A document was also found on the businessman’s phone that had “main talking points” for a call with the duke, which said he was “in a ‘desperate situation and will grab on to anything’.”
More details soon …
