The alleged Chinese spy linked to Britain’s Prince Andrew has been publicly named as Tengbo Yang after a judge lifted an anonymity order on Monday.
The Chinese (50) national has been banned from entering Britain on national security grounds since March 2023. MI5 has alleged that Mr Yang – who advised UK companies spanning GSK and McLaren – worked for a group gathering intelligence on behalf of the Chinese state.
Mr Yang had challenged the ban from the British Home Office, an appeal that was rejected last week by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission, and on Monday criticised his treatment.
“The widespread description of me as a ‘spy’ is entirely untrue,” he said. “The political climate has changed and unfortunately I have fallen victim to this. When relations are good and Chinese investment is sought, I am welcome in the UK. When relations sour, an anti-China stance is taken, and I am excluded.”
Mr Yang had developed business links to the prince and access to a network of other senior British political and business figures, primarily through his company Hampton Group International, which said it focused on “investing in, consulting on and enabling opportunities between China, the UK and the rest of the world”.
The commission’s ruling found that Mr Yang “had been in a position to generate relationships with prominent UK figures and senior Chinese officials that could be leveraged for political interference purposes by the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] ... or the Chinese State”.
MI5 had alleged Yang was a member of the Chinese Communist Party working for the United Front Work Department (UFWD), which gathers intelligence.
The judges found there was “not an abundance of evidence of the UFWD links” but there was an inconsistency between some of the evidence and Mr Yang’s “claims that he had no connections to anyone in politics in China”.
Mr Yang previously worked with UK drugmaker GSK to manage the fallout of a bribery scandal in China, according to people familiar with the matter.
GSK did not comment.
The pharmaceuticals group was introduced to Mr Yang by Ron Dennis, the former chief executive of McLaren, one of the people said. Mr Dennis declined to comment. McLaren did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mr Yang met and was photographed with two former Conservative prime ministers: David Cameron and Theresa May. It was unclear when the encounters occurred and there is no suggestion either politician knew Yang personally.
The anonymity order was reviewed during a hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice on Monday, ahead of MPs threatening to use parliamentary privilege to name the individual in the House of Commons.
Mr Yang, previously known only as H6 in the court documents, had already been named on social media and some overseas news sites and on Monday said he had asked his legal team to release his identity owing to “the high level of speculation and misreporting in the media and elsewhere”.
– Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2024
- Sign up for push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Join The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Listen to our Inside Politics podcast for the best political chat and analysis