Prince Andrew is key conduit to Chinese president, aide claims

Telegraph

04-04-2025

The Duke of York is a key conduit to Xi Jinping, his right-hand man claims in court documents.
Dominic Hampshire, a senior adviser to Prince Andrew, makes the claim in a witness statement in support of Yang Tengbo, an alleged Chinese spy and 'close confidant' of the Duke who was banned from the UK over security concerns.
Mr Hampshire describes the Duke as a 'valuable communication point with China', who regularly exchanges letters with the Chinese president.
He suggests that Elizabeth II 'encouraged' such regular communication, which was 'useful to have'.
'I maintain and believe that the Duke must surely be a valuable communication point with China,' Mr Hampshire states.
He writes: 'Whilst I think China would prefer a different royal, the reality is, to this day, that if the UK Government or the palace said that someone needs to see the Chinese president and talk to him, I think the Duke would be able to do that, whereas I don't think anyone else could do so as simply.'
The Eurasia Fund
The statement sheds fresh light on the Duke's business dealings with China and his relationship with Yang through a venture called the Eurasia Fund.
This scheme would have provided the Duke with an income after he stepped back from public duties following his disastrous Newsnight interview and was cut off by the King.
He was intrinsically involved in the creation of the fund, set up to invest in renewable energy projects in Africa using Chinese and Middle Eastern investment.
The fund, which sources insist failed to get off the ground and never traded, appears to have been linked to an entity called Eurasia Global Partners, incorporated as a management consultancy firm in November 2022.
Documents show that Yang's company, Hampton Group, owns 30 per cent of its shares, while Hampshire's consultancy firm owns 10 per cent and the remaining 60 per cent are owned by a company called Albe Global Partners, run by Aiden Heavey, a former commodities trader and the former chief executive of Tullow Oil.
Mr Hampshire took Mr Heavey into Buckingham Palace to meet Sir Michael Stevens, Keeper of the Privy Purse, to outline the fund's objectives and strategy.
He said it 'made sense' for Yang to talk to the relevant people in China about it, and that this is why he provided him with a letter, revealed in previous court documents, giving him the authority to speak on the Duke's behalf.
In October 2023, two years after Yang was first detained, Mr Heavey attended a Belt and Road Forum (BRF) in Beijing as he sought to drum up investment for the Eurasia Fund, of which he was chairman.
He said the BRF was 'a great showcase for Chinese business' suggesting that its renewable energy technologies and companies were what 'the rest of the world needs'.
Duke's 'communication channel' to China
To seek Chinese investment in the fund, 'top-down support from China' was needed and the Duke was considered the perfect man for the job.
Mr Hampshire claims the Duke 'has always had a communication channel' with Xi, largely as a result of Pitch@Palace China, the Chinese arm of Andrew's Dragons Den-style initiative, and that this was never hidden.
Letters to the president were carefully drafted, often with the help of Yang – who is also known as Chris Yang – to adhere to cultural differences, the document states, and 'did progressively talk about the Eurasia Fund as time went on'.
However, Mr Hampshire describes the missives as 'a top-level 'nothingness''.
He reveals that the Duke also sends a letter to the president for his birthday each year – communication about which he states the Royal household, including the late Queen were fully aware and accepted.
'It may be fair to say that perhaps even encouraged – it was an open channel of communication that was useful to have,' he writes.
The Duke also had meetings with the Chinese ambassador, who was 'specially relevant to Chris', Mr Hampshire states.
He writes that the Duke's team thought it was a good idea to take the ambassador in 'to reassure him that everything was going to be okay'.
At the same time, Mr Hampshire acknowledges that 'any overt relationship shown between the Duke and China is not a good look anywhere or for anyone'.
To this end, he went to great lengths to maintain confidentiality. In the statement he writes: 'The last thing we needed optically was a link to China, either via Chris or the Chinese ambassador. It was just common sense.'
The security services appear to have become concerned about the scheme because of the potential involvement of the Duke in expanding the Chinese government's influence around the world.
Late Queen's private secretary dragged into scandal
Sir Edward Young, the late Queen's private secretary, was briefed by MI5 on the Duke of York's friendship with Yang three years before the Chinese spy scandal was made public.
On Nov 6 2021 Yang had been detained at an airport where he surrendered his mobile phone and other devices to security services.
Sir Edward was given a briefing note by the intelligence agency, containing details of Yang's dealings with Prince Andrew. Shortly after on December 2 2021, Sir Edward requested a meeting with Mr Hampshire.
In a sign of the sensitivity of the meeting, Mr Hampshire was told to leave his mobile phone outside before being confronted by Sir Edward. In his witness statement, Mr Hampshire said: 'Sir Edward showed me a note with Chris's [Yang's] name on and said, 'do you know this person?' I of course said that I did. I asked, 'what does this mean?' Sir Edward said: 'I don't know'.'
Mr Hampshire said he and the Prince were doing 'quite a lot of work' with Yang and wondered what he was expected to do with the information contained in the note. Sir Edward replied a second time: 'I don't know.'
Mr Hampshire then told Queen Elizabeth's private secretary that Yang was vital to any chance the Duke had of making money. Mr Hampshire told Sir Edward: 'Chris [Yang] is pretty much our only avenue for the Duke moving forward and arguably the only light at the end of the tunnel for him. Do you have a plan B?'
Sir Edward replied that he did not at which point Mr Hampshire demanded he be briefed directly by MI5. 'I did make it very clear to Sir Edward that if I was told something that genuinely may adversely affect the Duke (or my country) in any way whatsoever, I would of course cease all communication immediately.'
A few days later, Mr Hampshire approached Lord Parker, the then Lord Chamberlain who had previously been director general of MI5. 'The Lord Chamberlain wouldn't give me any advice and pretty much dismissed me,' said Mr Hampshire.
It is understood that Lord Parker felt that having left his role as head of MI5 to become Lord Chamberlain in the Buckingham Palace household he could not interfere in an investigation conducted by his old employer.
Meeting with intelligence services
MI5 did go on to summon Prince Andrew's two most senior advisers to a meeting to warn them of their concerns over Yang, the legal documents disclose.
About five months after Buckingham Palace had been informed of security concerns in December 2021, Mr Hampshire was 'asked into a Westminster building', as he puts it in his witness statement, having 'waited for around five months until I was contacted by the intelligence services for the meeting I had asked for'.
Mr Hampshire was accompanied to the undisclosed location by Morag Love, the Duke's assistant private secretary.
Mr Hampshire describes 'a lady' as leading the meeting who told him 'there was a concern about Chris [Yang], and that he has a level of influence. The concern was how that influence could affect the Duke'.
Mr Hampshire insists in his statement he 'was open with them about everything' and then offered to disclose the letters written by Prince Andrew to Yang.
'This lady said that would not be necessary,' said Mr Hampshire before he was shown a paragraph of text from the website of the Eurasia Fund.
Mr Hampshire's response was to laugh, telling the intelligence officer: 'It is all just flannel, that was written in five minutes.'
Mr Hampshire then pressed the intelligence officer on whether this meant he and the Duke should stop all dealings with Yang. Mr Hampshire claimed the MI5 officer told him: 'No I can't ask you to stop. But we have genuine concerns about Chris and his influence on the Duke of York.'
Mr Hampshire said in his statement: 'That was the end of it and I have not heard anything since.'
Prince Andrew's reputation 'irrecoverable'
Elsewhere in the statement, Mr Hampshire reveals that it was a 'common feeling' in the Royal household that the Duke of York's reputation was 'irrecoverable' following his notorious Newsnight interview.
Prince Andrew was effectively sacked from public duty by the late Queen in the wake of his interview with Emily Maitlis, the Newsnight presenter, over his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted paedophile and billionaire financier.
In a startling admission, Mr Hampshire makes it clear the Duke had no option but to continue his business dealings with Yang because of his effective pariah status.
Yang 'did not desert the Duke', the document states, and felt Pitch@Palace China could continue.
In his witness statement, Mr Hampshire said: 'After the Newsnight interview and in the following few months, it was clear that the Duke's reputation was irrecoverable.
'This was a common feeling within the Royal household, despite what the Duke thought may happen.
'It was very clear internally within the Royal household that we would have to look at options for the Duke's future away from royal duties.'
Mr Hampshire stresses that everyone involved realised all dealings needed to be kept confidential.
He said: 'Every time the Duke does anything, the media attempts to destroy or at very least, malign him, often via individuals who leak documents or intel to the press.
'To progress in anything we do, everything has to be confidential where at all possible, not just with the Chinese.'
Duke was only 'blowing smoke' to flatter alleged spy
Prince Andrew's senior adviser appeared to backtrack over previous claims, made in writing, of the strong bond between the Duke and Yang.
In messages obtained by MI5 that were taken from Yang's phone, Mr Hampshire had praised Yang in the most effusive ways possible. He had written that he felt 'an unusual bond of friendship' with Yang and had added that he hoped it 'clear to you where you sit with my principal and indeed his family'.
Yang had been invited to the Duke's birthday, which Mr Hampshire had told him 'very, very few people have the privilege to ever be part of'.
But in his witness statement, Mr Hampshire makes every effort to distance himself from his private correspondence.
'As is regularly the case in some communications,' explains Mr Hampshire, 'There was significant artistic license in 'blowing smoke' and stroking his ego to maintain Chris's [Yang's] support of the Duke.'
He said he had no recollection of 'being directly involved with the invitations for the Duke's birthday', adding: 'It would almost certainly have been done via The Duchess [Prince Andrew's ex-wife with whom he still lives]. However, I almost certainly would have said it would be a good idea to invite Chris as the situation for the Duke was pretty dire and we needed to maintain Chris's support for Pitch.'
But Mr Hampshire insisted he continued to trust Yang while also appreciating his loyalty 'for standing by the Duke when all others were deserting him'.
Elsewhere in the document, Mr Hampshire states that both he and Prince Andrew 'genuinely trusted' the Chinese businessman and that there had 'never been one single red flag'.
Amanda Thirsk
Mr Hampshire does not hide his disdain for Amanda Thirsk, a former banker who was the Duke's closest aide for 16 years and was at the heart of his Pitch@Palace business initiative, running the profit-making, international arm as its chief executive for more than three years from 2017 and its charitable arm for five years from 2015.
Ms Thirsk was intimately involved in the establishment of Pitch@Palace China, which was co-founded by Yang, and made multiple trips to China to help promote the initiative.
Ms Thirsk proved to be the Duke's most loyal servant and one of very few who stuck by him during the Epstein scandal but lost her job in 2019, following the Newsnight interview, which is understood to have been her own idea.
But Mr Hampshire said that Yang 'like many people', 'struggled to work with Amanda Thirsk', whom he found 'very challenging and confrontational – as did I and many others.'
He claims Ms Thirsk would have been furious to find out that Pitch meetings were taking place behind her back, leading to an 'obsessive' level of confidentiality as they navigated their way around her.
Ms Thirsk now works in a senior business development role at JD.com, a Chinese online retail giant that operates more than 1,600 warehouses in China.
Dubious individuals
Mr Hampshire said he was at pains to remove unsavoury characters from the Duke's orbit.
In a letter to Yang, previously revealed in court documents, he had referred to the removal of 'those people whom we don't completely trust'.
In the witness statement he explains: 'This is a reference to dubious individuals who ingratiated themselves with the Duke in order to make excessive money out of the Duke or their association with him.'
One of those mentioned was Tarek Kaituni, a convicted Libyan gun smuggler, who introduced the Duke to alleged fraudster Selman Turk.
Kaituni, who has boasted of his influence over the Duke, had previously brokered meetings between the royal and the late dictator Colonel Gaddafi and attended the wedding of Princess Eugenie at Windsor Castle in 2018.
The Chinese are badly behaved on the golf course
It may be a Chinese spying scandal, but the biggest insult caused by it may come over how the Chinese play their golf.
Like the Duke of York, Mr Hampshire, has his passion for golf. He had co-founded with Yang the Serica Club, a Chinese golfing network. Yang paid Mr Hampshire a monthly retainer to run it. Members include one of the country's largest medicinal tea manufacturers.
But in a candid admission in his statement, Mr Hampshire said the British version of Serica, which he founded, did not have any Chinese members because of their behaviour on the course.
Mr Hampshire said: 'Chinese golfers do not have particularly good golf etiquette, which is hugely important and being able to speak English is a prerequisite'.