LONDON — The British government is facing fresh pressure over China after an alleged spy with close links to Prince Andrew was barred from returning to the U.K.
Court documents released last week revealed that a 50-year-old Chinese national — a businessman described as a “close confidant” of King Charles III’s brother — had been banned from the U.K. on national security grounds after cultivating close links with British power players.
The documents state that the man, named Monday as Yang Tengbo after a court order preventing his identification was lifted, was invited to receptions at Buckingham Palace and given permission to represent the royal in business deals.
Yang said Monday that claims he spied for China are “entirely untrue” and added in statement: “I have done nothing wrong or unlawful and the concerns raised by the Home Office against me are ill-founded.”
The court documents released last week allege that Yang had ties to China’s overseas influence-focused United Front Work Department (UFWD).
They outline how he was first stopped at a British port in November 2021 and ordered to surrender his digital devices. In 2023, he was taken off a flight from Beijing to London and told that he faced exclusion from the U.K.
The Sunday Times reported this weekend that Yang — described in the documents by an aide to Andrew as at the “very top of a tree that many, many people would like to be on” — even met prime ministers David Cameron and Theresa May during his time as an associate of the royal. Andrew said in a statement that he had severed all ties with the Chinese national.
‘Massive operations’
Beyond raising questions about the royal’s judgment, the revelations have sparked fierce debate in the U.K. over the British government’s bid to ease relations with China.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday insisted his administration remains “concerned about the challenge that China poses.”
But Tory MP and former Security Minister Tom Tugendhat told POLITICO London Playbook that the alleged Prince Andrew link is “just the tip of the iceberg” and that the Chinese state is using the UFWD to “conduct massive operations targeting not just the government and the royal family, but our universities, businesses and institutions too.”
Fellow Conservative China hawk Iain Duncan Smith echoed that line, and warned of extensive Chinese influence in the U.K.
Yang was barred from the U.K. on the orders of Conservative then-Home Secretary Suella Braverman, and he lost his challenge to that decision.
“The reality is that there are many, many more involved in exactly this kind of espionage that’s taking place,” Duncan Smith told Radio 4 Monday. “The reality for us is very simple — China is a very clear threat.”
UK’s ‘soft underbelly’ on China
Duncan Smith urged the U.K. to get on with implementing its long-delayed Foreign Influence Registration Scheme, which was repeatedly promised by Conservative governments and then paused when Labour came into power this summer. The new government is blaming poor administration of the scheme by the Tories for the hold-up.
But Duncan Smith insisted there was “nothing wrong” with FIRS and “nobody with half a brain will believe” government claims that it is not ready to deploy the scheme, which would require state agents to register their activity or face prosecution — and could see China placed on an “enhanced tier” of scrutiny.
“The reality is, it’s an excuse not to upset China. We are now seen … by our Five Eyes security partners, as the soft underbelly of that alliance and that’s a real worry,” Duncan Smith argued.
That charge was rejected by Starmer in a press conference Monday. Speaking on a trip to Norway, the British Prime Minister refused to discuss any conversations with Buckingham Palace, the royal household, about the affair.
“But of course, we are concerned about the challenge that China poses,” said Starmer, who recently met face-to-face with its premier Xi Jinping.
He added: “Our approach is one of engagement: of cooperating where we need to cooperate, particularly, for example, 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. So that’s the strategic approach that we’ve set out as a U.K. government.”
On the status of the FIRS scheme, Starmer insisted his administration had been “working on it from day one in government,” and promised “an update coming shortly.”
Before the anonymity order on Yang was lifted, MPs from Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party had threatened to use parliamentary privilege Monday to name him. That came in spite of a warning from ministers to tread carefully.
Sam Blewett contributed reporting. This story has been updated with further reporting.