An alleged Chinese spy who forged a close relationship with Prince Andrew has been identified by a British court, the latest twist in a case that has shone a light on Beijing\u2019s influence inside Britain\u2019s institutions. <\/p>\n
The man, Yang Tengbo, was identified after a judge ruled his anonymity should be removed, PA Media reported on Monday. <\/p>\n
Yang, who also went by the name Chris Yang, was described in a separate court hearing last week as developing an \u201cunusual degree of trust\u201d with the younger brother of King Charles. <\/p>\n
He was the co-founder of Pitch@Palace China, which expanded into China an initiative for entrepreneurs that was set up by Andrew in 2014. <\/p>\n
In a tribunal hearing on Thursday that upheld an earlier decision to bar Yang from the UK, it was revealed that he was authorized to act on Andrew\u2019s behalf during business meetings with potential Chinese investors in the UK, and that he was invited to Andrew\u2019s 60th birthday party in 2020. <\/p>\n
Yang has appeared in pictures and videos with Andrew during Pitch@Palace events. <\/p>\n
Yang said in a statement he had \u201cdone nothing wrong or unlawful,\u201d and that the \u201cwidespread description of me as a \u2018spy\u2019 is entirely untrue,\u201d PA Media said. <\/p>\n
Andrew\u2019s office said last week that the prince ceased his relationship with Yang after receiving government advice. \u201cThe Duke met the individual through official channels with nothing of a sensitive nature ever discussed,\u201d his office said. \u201cHe is unable to comment further on matters relating to national security.\u201d <\/p>\n
Concern over China\u2019s influence in Britain\u2019s politics and institutions has been steadily mounting in Westminster in recent years, and the case is just the latest example of an alleged infiltration by Beijing. <\/p>\n
Parliament\u2019s Intelligence and Security Committee released a report in 2023 outlining its view that China was seeking to target and influence people in the UK\u2019s political system. <\/p>\n
Yang is alleged to have worked for China\u2019s United Front Work Department (UFWD), a branch of the ruling Communist Party tasked with gaining influence both at home and overseas. The report described the UFWD \u2013 as working to \u201censure that politicians and high-profile figures in foreign states are supportive of the CCP, or at the very least do not criticise China or counter its narrative.\u201d <\/p>\n
Yang joins a growing number of people who have been accused of spying on behalf of China from inside the heart of Britain\u2019s institutions. <\/p>\n
Two men, one of them a parliamentary researcher, are awaiting trial after being charged with breaching the Official Secrets Act on behalf of China, which they deny. <\/p>\n
And in 2022 the MI5 spy agency warned lawmakers that Christine Lee, a woman connected to the Chinese Communist Party, had been working to interfere in the UK political process. <\/p>\n
Former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith, who raised the incident in an urgent question in the House of Commons on Monday, told the BBC the case was \u201cthe tip of the iceberg.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThe reality is that there are many, many more involved in exactly this kind of espionage that\u2019s taking place,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer told reporters on Monday: \u201cOf course we are concerned about the challenge that China poses.\u201d <\/p>\n
But he resisted calls to toughen Britain\u2019s policy on China. Starmer in November became the first prime minister to meet with China\u2019s President Xi Jinping for six years. He reiterated Monday: \u201cOur approach is one of engagement, of co-operating where we need to co-operate, particularly on issues like climate change, to challenge where we must and where we should, particularly on issues like human rights and to compete when it comes to trade.\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
An alleged Chinese spy who forged a close relationship with Prince Andrew has been identified by a British court, the latest twist in a case that has shone a light on Beijing\u2019s influence inside Britain\u2019s institutions. The man, Yang Tengbo, was identified after a judge ruled his anonymity should be removed, PA Media reported on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":6558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}