Almost 20 years after he first arrived in the UK as a student, Yang Tengbo, also known as Chris Yang, was stopped by UK border police. During questioning in November 2021 authorities found documents that showed a close relationship between the Chinese businessman and Prince Andrew, King Charles III's younger brother.
“Outside of his closest internal confidants, you sit at the very top of a tree that many, many people would like to be on,” read a letter to Yang from one of the prince’s senior advisors.
Yang, who told authorities he considered the UK a second home, was reportedly so close to the royal that he was invited to one of Andrew’s birthday parties. Photos have also emerged of the businessman at events meeting former prime ministers David Cameron and Theresa May.
But in February 2023, on one of his regular trips to the UK, Yang was removed from a flight from Beijing to London and told that Britain intended to ban him from the country.
In court last week judges ruled to maintain the ban after finding Yang represented a risk to national security. He was, they said, 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".
So how did a former junior Chinese civil servant infiltrate the highest levels of British society? And what information did he have access to when he got there?
An ‘agent of influence’?
Yang – who was known only as “H6” until a High Court judge lifted an anonymity order against him on Monday – is listed as a director of Hampton Group International, a group which advises UK-based companies on relations with China, and is also reportedly a member of Pitch@Palace China, an initiative by Prince Andrew to support entrepreneurs.
The accusations against the businessman centre on the Home Office’s belief that he was engaged in “covert and deceptive activity” on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) United Front Work Department (UFWD).
When it was created, the UFWD was described by Chairman Mao Zedong as one of China’s “three magic weapons”, along with the national army and the construction of the Communist Party itself. Its role is to build relationships with and influence entities outside the CCP, both nationally and overseas.
On the international stage, this makes the department a “lightning rod for critics of China, because they see that influence as extremely negative and aggressive”, says Professor Kerry Brown, director of the Lau China Institute at King’s College London.
If Yang was working for the UFWD it would likely be as an “agent of influence”, says Professor Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute in London. “Such agents are not spies in the conventional sense, but are people tasked by the CCP to infiltrate and influence establishment or other influential persons in the UK, with a view to steer them to take a positive view of China.”
Rather than stealing state secrets, the mission of these agents is to spread influence that will work to the advantage of the CCP. For example, “influence operations could result in a senior British politician being persuaded to act in the interest of China unwittingly when in office”, Tsang says.
However, it is unclear why Yang’s alleged target was Prince Andrew – a peripheral member of the royal family, who was stripped of his royal title and responsibilities in 2022 after being accused in a sexual assault lawsuit that linked him to convicted sex offender Jeffry Epstein.
The royal had authorised Yang to set up an international financial initiative to engage with potential partners and investors in China, according to evidence presented in court. The prince's office said nothing of a sensitive nature was ever discussed between the two men.
“The palace has no real political influence, Andrew is not at all someone with any standing in Britain, and it seems that there were expectations from Andrew and Yang that this was business related,” says Brown.
“The question is in what ways was Yang trying to use his relationship with Andrew for nefarious purposes which were not business purposes?”
‘Tip of the iceberg’
China on Tuesday said claims Yang used links with the prince to spy for Beijing were "preposterous".
Yang has also refuted the accusations against him and intends to appeal the court ruling banning him from the UK. "The widespread description of me as a 'spy' is entirely untrue," he said in a statement on Monday, adding that he had "done nothing wrong or unlawful".
His case comes as Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been attempting a “reset” of relations with China since he came into office in July. It also illustrates a fundamental contradiction in the UK approach: How to deepen economic ties with a state that is not seen as trustworthy?
MP and China hawk Ian Duncan-Smith said in in Parliament on Monday that Yang was the "tip of the iceberg" of Beijing's espionage activity in the UK. But if China was actually staging a massive espionage or influence operation the results would likely be obvious – and more successful, says Brown.
“The Chinese are not able to get clearance for their new embassy [in London]. The Chinese ambassador is banned from the House of Commons. If this is an influence campaign, it is a textbook of how not to do it.”
It is possible that Yang was part of a CCP influence campaign in the UK. But it is also possible that his dealings, like those of many other Chinese business people, were simply business.
“In the British business community, there are people who really want to engage with China and benefit from China's economic growth, which is entirely legitimate,” says Jinghan Zeng, Professor of China and International Studies at Lancaster University. “A lot of that legitimate networking is about building connections.”