Alleged Chinese spy linked to Prince Andrew excluded from the UK

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An alleged Chinese spy who had business links to Prince Andrew and access to a network of British political and business figures has been excluded from the UK on national security grounds.

An immigration hearing on Thursday upheld an earlier decision by the Home Office to ban the 50-year-old Chinese national, whom MI5 had alleged was a member of the Chinese Communist party working for the United Front Work Department. The UFWD gathers intelligence on behalf of the Chinese state.  

Data downloaded by the UK Security Service from the man’s phone in November 2021, after he was stopped at the border under counterterrorism laws, revealed his close relations to the late Queen Elizabeth’s second son as well as to powerful figures in the UK.

“The Applicant 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 (including the UFWD) or the Chinese State,” a ruling from the Special Immigration Appeals Commission said.

It added that a letter on the phone sent by Dominic Hampshire, a senior adviser to Prince Andrew, showed that the applicant had been acting on behalf of the Duke of York in meetings with potential partners and investors in China.  

“It was assessed that this demonstrated that the Applicant 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,” it said.

The man was an honorary member of the 48 Group Club, a London-based organisation dedicated to promoting UK-China trading relations. Its members have included former prime minister Sir Tony Blair and ex-deputy prime minister Lord Michael Heseltine as well as civil servants, business executives and diplomats.

The businessman denied links to the Chinese Communist party or receiving instructions from the UFWD. He said his company had assisted Chinese investors in the UK market, and had helped McLaren Automotive bring vehicles to the Chinese market, among other things.

However, it was “thought unlikely that he had fully disclosed his UFWD links to his UK contacts, indicating a ‘deceptive element’ to his activity,” the ruling said.  

Prince Andrew was forced to relinquish royal duties in 2019 as a result of his friendship with the late American financier and child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and after he reached an out-of-court settlement with one of the women whom Epstein had allegedly trafficked.

A document titled “talking points for the duke” dating back to August 2021 and found on the Chinese businessman’s phone suggested Prince Andrew was in a “desperate situation and will grab on to anything”.

The note said: “If he does talk about money: ‘things are going well, discussing with Dominic who will follow up’. If he asks about when deals are happening: ‘making’ good progress; not immediately but in the not too distant future. It is better to under-promise and then over-deliver.”

Britain’s security agencies have repeatedly warned about the threat of Chinese espionage. In 2022, Ken McCallum, head of MI5, said Beijing’s spy agencies were playing a “long game” to co-opt and influence British public figures. 

Calling it a “game-changing strategic challenge”, McCallum said the Chinese state was “mounting patient, well-funded, deceptive campaigns to buy and exert influence”.

Prince Andrew has been approached for comment.