Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
A CHINESE BUSINESSMAN who was barred from the UK in recent days for allegedly spying for the Chinese government has been named as businessman Yang Tengbo.
Yang Tengbo, previously known by the codename H6, is described as having had an “unusual degree of trust” with Britain’s Prince Andrew and is reported to have met several recent British prime ministers.
Yang, who strongly denies allegations that he is a spy, lost an appeal last week over a decision to bar him from entering the UK on national security grounds.
In the ruling on Thursday, judges assessed that Yang was in a position to “generate relationships between senior Chinese officials and prominent UK figures which could be leveraged for political interference purposes by the Chinese State”.
Here’s everything that is known about the alleged Chinese spy Yang Tengbo.
Yang’s identity was revealed this afternoon following a High Court ruling in London.
The 50-year-old, who also used the name Christopher Yang, had previously remained anonymous under a High Court order.
Yang’s lawyers originally appealed to have his anonymity maintained, but agreed to the order being lifted today. An MP for the Reform Party had said he would use parliamentary privilege to identify Yang if the courts did not do so.
The businessman was born in Yunnan, southwest China. He graduated with a history degree from a local university before spending seven years working for a “national government agency”.
Yang moved to the UK in 2002, later founding Hampton Group in London in 2005, an investment consultant group which “acts as a bridge between companies in China and the rest of the world“.
The businessman was granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK in 2012 and split his time between China and the UK.
Yang was first excluded from Britain by then-Home Secretary Suella Braverman in 2023, when the UK Home Office said he was believed to have carried out “covert and deceptive activity” for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Judges were told that in a briefing for the home secretary in July 2023, officials claimed Yang had been in a position to generate relationships between prominent UK figures and senior Chinese officials “that could be leveraged for political interference purposes”.
He later brought legal action for a review of the decision at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC), arguing that it was unlawful. The tribunal in London heard that he had said he avoided involvement in politics and had only limited links to the Chinese state.
His representative told the tribunal he had never been a senior member of the CCP and had not carried out activities on its behalf.
Despite these claims from Yang and his representative, his appeal at the SIAC was dismissed on Thursday.
The businessman had visited the UK regularly, attending events at a series of royal residences, including Andrew’s birthday party at his home.
The SIAC 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.
Yang has met two former prime ministers over the past 15 years, according to the Sunday Times – David Cameron at a Downing Street reception and Theresa May at a black-tie event.
The businessman allegedly used so-called “elite capture” tactics to target senior figures in the British establishment.
It is not known precisely when the Yang first met Andrew, the disgraced son of Queen Elizabeth II, but a statement released by Andrew said the pair met through “official channels”.
At a hearing in July, the SIAC appeal tribunal heard that the prince’s aide told the suspected spy that he could help in potential dealings with Chinese investors.
According to court documents, the businessman was so close to Andrew that he was authorised to act on his behalf in an international financial initiative with potential partners and investors in China.
Yang also received an invitation to Andrew’s 60th birthday party in 2020.
Yang is believed to have visited Buckingham Palace twice, and also entered St James’s Palace and Windsor Castle at the invitation of Andrew.
A letter from Andrew’s aide, Dominic Hampshire, was discovered on Yang’s mobile devices when he was stopped at a port in 2021. The letter 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.”
Yang was also appointed by Prince Andrew as the head of the Chinese arm of his Dragons’ Den-style entrepreneur business Pitch@Palace, the Times have reported.
Andrew invited Yang, described in the court circular as the founder-partner of Pitch@Palace China, to an evening meeting at Buckingham Palace in June 2018. Four days later, Yang was back at the palace to meet Andrew with Wang Bingnan, China’s vice-minister of commerce.
In a statement on Friday, a spokesperson from Prince Andrew’s office said that Andrew had “followed advice from His Majesty’s Government and 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.
“He is unable to comment further on matters relating to national security,” the spokesperson said.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer admitted he was “concerned about the challenge that China poses” after the alleged spy was able to form links at the heart of the British establishment.
Speaking during a visit to Norway, Starmer would not comment on any conversations he may have had with the royal family over the H6 case but added that the government “are concerned about the challenge that China poses.”
Former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith described the situation as “the tip of the iceberg”.
“The reality is that there are many, many more involved in exactly this kind of espionage that’s taking place,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“The reality for us is very simple – China is a very clear threat.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Colonial imperialist terrorists doing what they do!
@joe moody: Protecting people from terrorists that planted bombs in Shops , Pubs , Restaurants, Hotels . They didn’t care who they killed .
@Jack Moss: Balkymurphy massacre, Derry Bloody Sunday hasn’t really covered your comrades in arms in Glory. Don’t try to come here and claim some sort of moral high ground while defending British forces in Ireland or rest of world. Your national is currently supplying the means of genocide in Palestine.
@Jack Moss: how is that protecting people? It could’ve damaged the peace process and cost people their lives
@North Phone Bowe: Your hero McGuinness and his Derry brigade murdered 51 innocent from the Derry area . 28 of them Catholics . People like Catholic teen Kathleen Feeney shot through the head by the IRA . Spares us your crocodile tears for those killed on Bloody Sunday .
@Jack Moss: shankill butchers , loyalist collusion…etc etc.. U LOL crew only see one side always and it’s orange
@Pork Hunt: Nobody defends/ justifies the murders committed by loyalist terrorists though. It’s only Provo supporters who seem to forget that the Provos murdered more Catholics than the British Army during the Troubles. Revisionism is good business these days. I don’t forget the poll carried out at the end of the Troubles that showed both Catholics and Protestants in the high 80s% say there was no justification for the terrorism committed in their name.
@honey badger: it’s not surprising to see you in support of a brutal apartheid occupying force.
Both the IRA and Hamas have done heinous things, for sure but both of them are a result of unjust suppression and disenfranchisement of people, illegally. Neither of them grew in a vacuum.
If you brutally push people down, they will rise up with whatever means they have at their disposal. I’ve no doubt that Palestinians would love to face Israel down with a conventional army but Israel has seen to it that that can’t happen. You reap what you sow.
@Soundy Sound: Lovely word salad and whataboutery. What “unjust suppression, disenfranchisement, illegally” were the Catholic victims of their supposed defenders guilty of? Strangely, Israel/ Hamas has/ had zero to do with it.
@Pork Hunt: The Shankill butchers murder 9 Protestants .
@Soundy Sound: They didn’t rising up . The majority of Catholics were supporting non violent organisations like the civil rights movement and John Humes SDLP . The IRA did not represent the Catholic population of NI . The 26 counties was a 98 percent RC state. It political system was made up of Republican parties . 40 thousand Protestant fled the 26 counties from intimidation and murder during the war of independence. The Protestant population fell to 3 percent. All this is long forgotten. Ireland was not partition in 1921 . The UK was partition . Irish Nats gain 26 counties the UK lost 26 counties. The UK people and unionists just accepted it and move on . Violence has always been the first choice for republican organisations . They always see themselves as the victims in history.
@honey badger: There is literally no point in arguing with someone who’s starting point is claiming that the nationalist population in Northern Ireland were not discriminated against by the ruling system.
@Jack Moss: protected nobody, and in this instance, actively pushed propaganda that could have caused serious damage to a fragile peace process.
Actual state-sponsored terrorism from so called “security forces”
@Alan Roddy: The security forces had a 99 percent arresting rate . Over 25000 republicans were arrested and prosecuted for terrorism and criminality . Less then 200 were killed by the security forces over 25 yrs of the troubles . 3500 people were killed almost half of those were the security forces . In 69 NI was facing an all out civil war . The only thing that stop it going over the edge was the security forces . Over a 100 thousand people died in the three yr civil war in Bosnia . 3500 died in 26 yrs in NI . If it wasn’t for the security forces and emergency services nurses , doctors , paramedics, fire fighters that all stood in the face of terrorism the IRA would have succeeded in murdering tens of thousands more .
@Soundy Sound: What you mean to say is you can’t comfortably justify why the Provos murdered more Catholics than the British Army. The only place you heard there was no discrimination was in your own head. It’s an odd thing to throw out there. Discrimination was so bad that the provos had to kill more of their own people than the British Army.
RUC might’ve changed their name, but didn’t change their anti-Irish senior personnel.
@Uí Braonáin: If I remember rightly if you got a train from Dublin to Belfast the train was often stop before crossing the border on the recommendation from the RUC north of the border . People were put onto buses for their own safety to travel the rest of the journey because the IRA was constantly blowing up the rail line . They blew it 26 times in six months . Trains carrying people from the south came within minutes of being derailed .
British spy planes hover over Gaza daily passing information to Israel on which tent full of innocent defenceless women and children to blow up next
@Kevin O Brien: Are these the same spy planes that are collecting evidence of war crimes etc?
@Kevin O Brien: Ah! Come on now Kevin!!
@Gary Kearney: Same accuracy
Any article on the cop saying no iPas are unvetted , which he clarifies as fingerprinted as identified. Kids in transition year get more vetting for work experience. No comment from the cop on forced deportation , it’s just part of the process. What a joke.
It was a common tactic of the IRA to leave secondary devices to kill the people that attempted to help the injured . The Claudy bombings consisted of three car bombs left on a public street. Car bomb two and three were timed to go off a few minutes after the first bomb detonated . There purpose was to kill the people that ran out onto the street to help the injured of the first bomb . 9 died 6 of them Catholic .
@Jack Moss: Why do you keep bringing religion into it.
@Daniel Roche: People are living in some fairytale land that the IRA were defenders of Catholics which is untrue.
@Jack Moss:
SF RA did not give a dam about the Irish. It was all about a one Island communist sithole state.
Pikes in the Thatch.
@Róisín Guffpuffin:
Pub in Rathkeel??
have your say