Prince Andrew faces questions over links to accused Chinese spy
LONDON — Not for the first time, Britain’s Prince Andrew is at the center of a scandal over alleged links to questionable characters.
The British establishment is abuzz over allegations that a Chinese businessman — named in court Monday as Yang Tengbo — sought to forge close links with King Charles III’s younger brother to gather intelligence on British elites on behalf of the Chinese state.
The 50-year-old businessman, also known as Chris Yang, said via his lawyers that he had done “nothing wrong or unlawful” and dismissed the spy allegations as “entirely untrue.” He recently lost an appeal to overturn a ban that barred him from Britain on national security grounds in 2023.
The story has attracted attention as an example of a potential national security threat from China, and also as an example of Prince Andrew, yet again, making headlines for the wrong reasons.
Once a wartime hero and global trade ambassador, Andrew was cast into the royal wilderness after revelations concerning his friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and a legal case brought by one of Epstein’s accusers, who said she was trafficked to Andrew. Andrew paid a financial settlement to the accuser but has always denied wrongdoing.
As far as his links to Yang, Andrew’s office issued a statement Friday saying that the Duke of York had “ceased all contact with the individual after concerns were raised.”
“The Duke met the individual through official channels with nothing of a sensitive nature ever discussed,” the statement added.
Yang’s connection to the prince became public as part of the businessman’s effort to appeal an order by then-British Home Secretary Suella Braverman to ban him from the United Kingdom.
Yang headed Pitch@Palace China, a piece of an initiative launched by Andrew to connect businesses with investors.
A letter from one of Andrew’s aides, discovered in Yang’s possession, stated, “Outside of his closest internal confidants, you sit at the very top of a tree that many, many people would like to be on.”
Andrew was described by Yang, according to documents, as someone “in a desperate situation.”
Yang said in his statement that there was a “high level of speculation and misreporting in the media and elsewhere” and that he was an “independent self-made entrepreneur and I have always aimed to foster partnerships and build bridges between east and west.”
“I have dedicated my professional life in the UK to building links between British and Chinese businesses. My activities have played a part in bringing hundreds of millions of pounds of investment into the UK,” he said in the statement. “I built my private life in the UK over two decades and love the country as my second home. I would never do anything to harm the interests of the UK.”
A ruling by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission, published last week, found that Yang had “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.”
The tribunal found that “the Secretary of State was entitled to conclude that the Applicant represented a risk to the national security of the United Kingdom, and that she was entitled to conclude that his exclusion was justified and proportionate.”
The episode led to a House of Commons debate Monday on China’s influence. Chris Philp, a Conservative lawmaker, said it was probable that at some point, “every member of this House will be contacted or attempted to be contacted” by a Chinese agent.
Iain Duncan Smith, a senior Conservative politician, said Yang was “not a lone wolf.”
The head of MI5, Britain’s domestic security agency, has said that more than 20,000 individuals in the United Kingdom have been approached by suspected Chinese agents.
Buckingham Palace has not commented on the spying allegations. The BBC reported Monday that Andrew won’t be joining the royal family at Sandringham estate for Christmas, when they typically walk together to church.