Chinese spy banned from UK and linked to Prince Andrew named as Yang Tengbo

An alleged Chinese spy who became friends with Prince Andrew and mixed with some of the most powerful figures in the land including top politicians can today be named as Yang Tengbo.

The 50-year-old, previously known as H6, is said to have become a ‘close’ confidant of the Duke of York and has also been pictured with senior Tories such as Lord David Cameron and Baroness Theresa May.

At an urgent High Court hearing today, lawyers for Mr Tengbo – who is also known as Chris Yang – said that the businessman was not seeking to maintain his anonymity.

Guy Vassall-Adams KC said: ‘There has been an enormous amount of media reporting in relation to this story, and particularly in relation to the relationship between my client, H6, and Prince Andrew, as well as a huge amount of speculation about the identity of my client.’

Lifting his anonymity, Judge Mr Justice Chamberlain said: ‘It seems to me that these proceedings now serve no further purpose.’

Mr Tengbo denies being a spy or doing anything illegal. He challenged his ban on entering the UK at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) in July, but lost his appeal last week.

The Chinese national had been due to be named after an anonymity order made in May 2023 was lifted by judges at the specialist tribunal.

However, the day before the judgment was due to be published, he made a successful bid at the High Court for a temporary block on being named, which has now been lifted.

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp previously told LBC he was ‘extremely worried’ about the case and that the court order protecting the man’s identity should be lifted so that ‘justice can be seen to be done’.

If Tengbo’s mission was to penetrate the heart of the British establishment, then it must be said that he did an exceptional job.

Operating in plain sight as an Anglophile Chinese businessman keen to forge meaningful links between the two nations, he infiltrated top institutions with astonishing success.

Now that the order forbidding naming him has been lifted, Tengbo’s incredible web of influence across British society can be disclosed for the first time.

As well as the 50-year-old’s intimate ties with Prince Andrew, it can be revealed that he owned a business with ‘the most connected woman in Britain’ and was instrumental in opening branches of the school attended by the King in China.

Tengbo invested in a fashion and soft furnishings company with the late former chair of both the UK Atomic Energy Authority and the Institute of Directors, Lady Barbara Judge.

With an uncanny sense of timing, Tengbo rode to the rescue during a rare moment of vulnerability in Lady Judge’s life.

Helped by his financial support – and in return for a 40 per cent share – Lady Judge was able to launch B&H Enterprise after quitting the IoD amid allegations of bullying, racism and sexism in 2018.

Lady Judge resigned as chair of the IoD after law firm Hill Dickinson filed a report accusing her of more than 40 episodes of unreasonable behaviour.

Radio Four’s Women’s Hour described Lady Judge as ‘one of the best-connected women in Britain.’

As well as chair of the IoD, she was a previous chairman of the UK Atomic Energy Authority, the UK’s fraud prevention service Cifas, chair of the Pension Protection Fund, and an ambassador on behalf of UK Trade & Investment.

She was also a trustee of several cultural and charitable institutions, including the Royal Academy of Arts and Dementia UK.

Ably straddling so many influential roles across some of Britain’s most important institutions and unhindered by Royal protocols, Lady Judge would have had the sort of power and access that Prince Andrew could only dream of.

In addition to winning over captains of industry, Tengbo played a crucial role in establishing Gordonstoun School in China.

The historic £41,250-a-year Gordonstoun, attended by the King and his father Prince Philip, was the birthplace of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and the Round Square conference of schools.

Tengbo’s company, the Hampton Group, oversaw the opening of the school in China in 2022, much to the consternation of some of its illustrious alumni.

Among them was director and author Justin Baldwin, who captained Gordonstoun’s hockey team before directing Cash In Hand, starring Richard E Grant.

When the move was first announced he said: ‘Why would we put a school in a country where they have camps to convert Muslims by feeding them pork? That’s everything that [Gordonstoun’s founder] Kurt Hahn was against.’

In a statement issued on his behalf, Mr Tengbo said he had done ‘nothing wrong or unlawful’ and descriptions of him as an alleged spy were ‘entirely untrue’.

The statement said he had voluntarily waived his right to anonymity.

Mr Tengbo said: ‘Due to the high level of speculation and misreporting in the media and elsewhere, I have asked my legal team to disclose my identity. I have done nothing wrong or unlawful and the concerns raised by the Home Office against me are ill-founded. The widespread description of me as a ‘spy’ is entirely untrue.

‘This is why I applied for a review of the Home Office decision in the first place, and why I am seeking permission to appeal the SIAC decision. 

‘It is also why an order extending my anonymity up to the point of determination of the appeal process was granted.

‘I have been excluded from seeing most of the evidence that was used against me under a process which is widely acknowledged by SIAC practitioners as inherently unfair: decisions are made based on secret evidence and closed proceedings, which has been described as ‘taking blind shots at a hidden target’. 

‘On their own fact finding, even the three judges in this case concluded that there was ‘not an abundance of evidence’ against me, their decision was ‘finely balanced’, and there could be an ‘innocent explanation’ for my activities. This has not been reported in the media.

‘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 Tengbo was the founder-partner of Pitch@Palace China.

The Pitch@Palace initiative was the Duke of York’s scheme to support entrepreneurs.

Mr Yang was first excluded from Britain by then-home secretary Suella Braverman in 2023, when the Home Office said he was believed to have carried out ‘covert and deceptive activity’ for the Chinese Communist Party.

The businessman suggested he was a victim of increasingly hawkish views on China under the Conservative administration at the time.

‘The political climate has changed and unfortunately, I have fallen victim to this,’ Mr Yang said.

‘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,’ he said.

Judges at a specialist tribunal in London last week ruled Mrs Braverman had been ‘entitled to conclude’ that he ‘represented a risk to the national security’ after he launched an appeal against the decision.

The businessman had brought a case to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) after his initial exclusion in 2023 but his appeal was dismissed.

In his statement, Mr Yang hit out at the process which led to his ban from entering the UK.

‘I have been excluded from seeing most of the evidence that was used against me under a process which is widely acknowledged by SIAC practitioners as inherently unfair: decisions are made based on secret evidence and closed proceedings, which has been described as ‘taking blind shots at a hidden target’,’ Mr Yang said.

‘On their own fact finding, even the three judges in this case concluded that there was ‘not an abundance of evidence’ against me, their decision was ‘finely balanced’, and there could be an ‘innocent explanation’ for my activities. This has not been reported in the media.’

Downing Street rejected Mr Yang’s criticism of the process he had faced, insisting Sir Keir Starmer had confidence in SIAC and the independence of the courts.

Relations between the UK and China have improved since Sir Keir took office and in November he became the first prime minister to meet Xi Jinping since 2018.

But the Prime Minister acknowledged he was ‘concerned about the challenge that China poses’.

He defended his strategy for dealing with China: ‘Our 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.

‘That’s the strategic approach that we have set out as a UK Government.’

Today it emerged Prince Andrew had pulled out of the Royal Family’s Christmas celebrations at Sandringham over the scandal. 

The beleaguered Duke of York has agreed not to embarrass the King further and has voluntarily decided, along with his wife, Sarah, Duchess of York, to give the annual celebrations in Norfolk a miss.

It is believed the couple are likely to remain at Royal Lodge.

The Mail understands that their children, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, had already made the decision to spend Christmas with their respective in-laws, having not had the chance to do so for several years.

The Daily Mail revealed today that His Majesty didn’t want to ban his brother from attending but hoped he might ‘do the decent thing’ and decide to stay away in light of the growing spy scandal.

It is understood that The King and Queen were hoping none other than the Duchess of York might come to their rescue and save the family’s festivities this Christmas – and it appears that she has.

Their Majesties had made clear privately that it would be a ‘blessing’ if Sarah – known to them still as ‘Fergie’ – were to persuade her ex-husband to ‘see sense’ and tactfully withdraw from public gatherings over the next week as the storm around his dealings with an alleged Chinese spy still rages.

While the duchess has found herself at the centre of several royal scandals over the years, Charles and Camilla – like Queen Elizabeth before them – are quite ‘fond’ of her at heart.

They rather admire her loyalty to both Andrew, despite his repeated public travails, as well as the monarchy more generally.

And they believe she was possibly the one person who could talk the Duke of York round into ‘recusing’ himself from the family’s very public walk to church at Sandringham on Christmas Day – and possibly into downsizing himself from Royal Lodge.

Remarkably the couple still live together at the grand Windsor mansion Andrew has on a long-term lease from the Crown Estate that is at the centre of much of his most recent controversy.

In an interview at the weekend Sarah likened herself to being a ‘carer for a sad man’ and also spoke of her love for the king and his kindness towards her.

The Hampton Group said in a statement: ‘Hampton Group is a British company employing a small number of British and Chinese nationals with the right to work in the UK. The company operates to high standards of governance and compliance according to international best practices. We pay tax in the UK and are proud to have made a positive impact on the UK economy through our work.

‘Neither Hampton Group or any of its staff or associates have ever been involved in any covert intelligence gathering on behalf of the Chinese Government, or any other state. Hampton Group in the UK will continue to support its clients, helping them to achieve their commercial goals.’