A businessman with close ties to Prince Andrew who has been banned from entry into the U.K. is a longtime operative who did little to hide his ties to Beijing.
RFA can identify the man who served as a business advisor to the Duke of York as Yang Tengbo, a director of the consultancy Hampton Group International, based on details revealed in the immigration judgmentagainst him, as well as evidence gathered from open source intelligence that corroborates information released by the U.K. court.
Yang is listed as a director of the London-based group, which was known to have gained connections to top U.K. government officials as early as in 2020, including Prince Andrew.
The judgment from the Special Immigration Appeals Tribunal made public Friday determined that a Chinese national, codenamed H6, should be barred from entering the U.K. on national security grounds, as he is alleged to have plotted to secretly advance Beijing’s interest in Britain using his ties to high profile figures.
H6 was born on March 21, 1974 and founded a U.K. company in 2005 that changed its name in 2020, according to the ruling.
While the judgement does not name the company, Yang Tengbo shares H6’s birthdate and founded Newland UK Ltd in 2005, which changed its name in 2020 to Hampton Group International Ltd, according to Companies House.
An emailed enquiry to the Hampton Group on Friday returned a message that the group’s server would not accept emails from RFA.
The judgment also noted that H6 was an honorary member of a Sino-British business association, the 48 Group Club, which describes itself as the product of the “first western trade delegation to the newly formed People’s Republic of China” in 1954.
The club’s founder was made an honorary red guard member by Mao Zedong and today the organization is frequently lauded in Chinese media. It was accused of acting as a conduit for the Chinese state to “groom” senior British businessmen and political figures, in “Hidden Hand” a 2020 book by Australian researchers looking at covert Chinese influence worldwide.
The club has previously insisted that it acts only in the U.K.’s national interest and tried to block the publication of the book.
Yang can be found among the honorary members in an archived “who’s who” page from 2022, where he is listed as “Mr Chris Yang, Chairman, Hampton Group.”
An emailed request for comment to the 48 Group Club was met with an automatic reply promising a response as soon as possible. No further response was received as of publication.
Yang’s name has not been published in the U.K. press, despite numerous identifying details about him in the judgment. There is a temporary anonymity order appended to the judgement.
When asked by RFA, the U.K.’s Home Office would not confirm the identity of H6 or the reason for the order.
Other details from the judgment include the assertion that H6 was working for the United Front Works Department – an arm of the Chinese government that seeks to promote its political, economic and social agenda abroad. Such efforts range from using Chinese nationals and sympathizers to broadcast Beijing-friendly talking points to gathering personal information about people of interest.
Yang has frequently and publicly echoed the points United Front advances and had ties to the central government he did not hide, although the judgement notes that he “deliberately obscured his links with the Chinese State, the CCP and the UFWD” in interviews with U.K. authorities.
In 2022, he was photographed attending the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, or CPPCC, in Beijing, where he was also interviewed by the state media outlet China Daily. The CPPCC is the leading body in China’s United Front system.
The China Daily quotes Yang as praising China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a vast project of exporting Chinese-funded infrastructure projects abroad.
“As an overseas Chinese businessman in the U.K., I have actively participated in the “Belt and Road” initiative since it was proposed. China-U.K. cooperation in third-party markets is showing new characteristics of effectively reducing the risk of conflict and promoting harmonious regional development,” he said.
In a filmed 2019 interview with Europe Daily News, a Chinese media outlet registered in France widely reported to be a United Front organization, Yang gives his biography to the camera, telling the reporter that he went to the U.K. in 2002 to study at a public administration school. After graduation, he started in the tourism industry to generate cash flow, he says. Those biographical details are echoed in the court judgement.
“Between 2007 and 2012, China experienced a strong trend of ‘going out’,” he says in the video interview. “We helped domestic enterprises [and] State-owned enterprises expand internationally, starting from tourism and moving into the conference and public relations industries.”
“In 2013, British companies began expressing interest in entering the Chinese market, so our group pivoted to strategic consulting,” Yang continues. “Next, we plan to transform into an investment group.”
He also reveals that “in 2017, through a very unexpected opportunity, a prince entrusted us with bringing this project to China.” The “prince” appears to refer to Prince Andrew and the project appears to be the Pitch@Palace program, an initiative by the prince to connect entrepreneursseeking funding to wealthy investors.
When asked what was different about making friends with princes and high-ranking figures, Yang replies: “Trust is the most important thing.”
The judgement notes that MI5, the U.K.’s domestic intelligence agency, considered that H6 “poses a risk to U.K. national security.”
Prince Andrew’s office issued a statement Friday evening insisting that he had “ceased all contact” with the alleged Chinese spy following advice from the U.K. government.
“Nothing of a sensitive nature was ever discussed” with Yang, he said, adding that he was “unable to comment further on matters relating to national security.”
Besides Prince Andrew, Yang appears to have had access to the top echelons of British society. A profile of Yang that aired on CCTV, the Chinese state broadcaster, features a shot of his desk, upon which sits a photo of him with former prime minister Theresa May and another with former prime minister David Cameron.
Beijing has long defended the United Front, saying the group aims primarily to improve national prosperity and happiness, and calling claims of espionage or infiltration “conspiracy theories.
Such language was echoed in a press statement issued on Friday, in which the spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in London denounced the judgement as the product of a campaign to “smear China and sabotage normal people-to-people exchanges between China and the U.K.”
“Some on the British side repeatedly use China’s United Front work as a pretext to accuse China of wrongdoing, discredit China’s political system, and undermine normal exchanges and cooperation between China and the U.K. Such sinister plots will never succeed,” the spokesperson said.
“We urge the relevant parties in the U.K. to immediately stop creating trouble, stop spreading the “China threat” narrative, and stop undermining normal exchanges between China and the U.K.,” they added.
Yang could not be reached for comment.
