Chinese ‘spy': I risked my reputation by supporting Prince Andrew

Telegraph

06-04-2025

An alleged Chinese spy said he took a 'significant risk' to his reputation by continuing to support Prince Andrew after his disastrous Newsnight interview, documents have revealed.
Yang Tengbo, who was banned from the UK on national security grounds, said he maintained 'loyalty and commitment' to the Duke despite the royal's general 'negative' perception in China.
Yang was forced to leave the country on national security grounds in March 2023 and unsuccessfully challenged the decision at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission last year.
UK authorities have alleged that he formed an 'unusual degree of trust' with the Duke and developed relationships with politicians to be 'leveraged' by China.
Pitch@Palace initiative
On Friday, a secrecy order preventing the release of some documents linked to the case was lifted in the public interest after an application by publications, including The Telegraph.
Among the newly published documents is a second witness statement from Yang, where he denied 'scheming to destabilise the UK' and said he was 'confused' as to why the British state believed he was a threat.
Yang appears to have targeted the Duke through his Pitch@Palace initiative, a Dragons' Den-style competition launched in 2014, and he was later appointed to lead its Chinese arm, Pitch@Palace China, when it was launched two years later.
In the 37-page statement, Yang said that Pitch@Palace China had been 'recognised as one of the top international entrepreneur and start-up platforms in the country' but that after the Duke's November 2019 interview with Emily Mailtis, 'everything changed'.
'Following that interview, all international partners of Pitch pulled out or distanced themselves from it,' he said. 'The Pitch Global team moved from their offices out of Buckingham Palace. But the intention was to maintain Pitch in some form.'
He said Amanda Thirsk, the Duke's private secretary and the director of the Pitch@Palace initiative, asked whether he would continue to support the project, 'especially given the success we had achieved in China', and that he decided to do so despite believing it posed a risk.
'At a significant risk for me and my business reputationally, I agreed to continue to support Amanda and Pitch,' he said. 'I admired and respected the Duke in how engaged and passionate he was about supporting Chinese entrepreneurs. I felt I had also invested a huge amount of time, effort, and money into Pitch China and did not want that investment to go to waste.'
The new documents included a witness statement from Dominic Hampshire, a senior adviser to Prince Andrew, that claimed the King held secret meetings with the Duke about his plans for a Chinese investment scheme run by Yang.
Mr Hampshire claimed that the King was aware of an investment fund in which Yang was directly involved.
'I am not a threat to UK security'
Yang told the tribunal that he first met the Duke at a dinner in St James's Palace in 2014, having been introduced to Ms Thirsk by Sir Ron Dennis, the Formula 1 executive.
Earlier in the statement, Yang said on setting up Pitch in China, the initiative was 'unknown there, and the Duke's reputation was fairly negative and based on reporting taken from the British media'. He said he persuaded others to 'take a risk alongside me and invest in what was essentially a start-up'.
In his statement, Yang said that during his time working with the Duke, he had very little contact with him and could not have influenced the Duke.
'There would literally be no way I could possibly exert any unwanted influence on his team, or him. If anything, I was using my own networks and understanding of China to help with Pitch build[ing] a positive brand in China,' he said.
He said being a representative of the Chinese business community in the UK meant meeting members of the Chinese Communist Party was 'unavoidable' but 'this does not mean I am working for this organisation, for its interests, or on its behalf'.
'I am definitively not scheming to destabilise the UK or its institutions or prominent individuals, and I am not acting against the national interests of the UK. I am not a threat to the security of the UK, and I feel very insulted to be accused of this and without seeing any material evidence against me to support this.'
He later added: 'I am confused as to why the British state believes I am a threat to the public good on the grounds of national security.'
'I don't deceive, I don't mislead'
Yang said that concerns about the 48 Group, which promotes trade between the UK and China and of which he is a member, were 'paranoid and far-fetched'.
He said it was wrong to accuse him of spying and his ' prominent status as a successful Chinese entrepreneur in the UK' was 'nothing to do with me wanting to get access or exert influence in the UK '.
'I feel that the government completely misunderstands me and what I do. I don't deceive, I don't mislead, and I don't hide things to interfere with the interests of the UK.'
Yang also claimed that the Duke had wanted him to become involved with a golf tournament and told him to contact Mr Hampshire during a dinner at Buckingham Palace in October 2019.
'During that dinner, the Duke said I should contact Dominic who runs his golf tournament,' Yang wrote. 'He said there may be opportunities to work with him on golf like we had done with Amanda for Pitch. The Duke wrote Dominic's number down on a piece of paper and I then reached out to Dominic.'
Yang also suggested that the Duke wanted to keep a relationship with Chinese business in August 2021 because he 'needed money'
Yang said that when the new ambassador, Zheng Zeguang, came to the UK, Hampshire was 'involved in the preparation of the talking points' of a call. He said the 'purpose of the note was to keep the Duke engaged without promising anything in terms of financial benefit because the Duke needed money at the time, and saw the relationships with China through Pitch as one possible source of funding.'