Alleged Chinese spy Yang Tengbo denies claims and criticises ‘political climate’

Alleged Chinese spy Yang Tengbo, who forged links with the Duke of York and mixed with other British establishment figures, insisted he has “done nothing wrong or unlawful”.

Mr Yang said it was “entirely untrue” to claim he was involved in espionage and said he was a victim of a “political climate” which had seen a rise in tensions between the UK and China.

Businessman Mr Yang became a “close” confidant of the Duke of York and has also been pictured with senior politicians including Lord David Cameron and Baroness Theresa May.

In a statement after a High Court judge lifted an order granting him anonymity he said: “Due to the high level of speculation and misreporting in the media and elsewhere, I have asked my legal team to disclose my identity.

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“I have done nothing wrong or unlawful and the concerns raised by the Home Office against me are ill-founded. The widespread description of me as a ‘spy’ is entirely untrue.”

Mr Yang last week lost an appeal over a decision to bar him from entering the UK on national security grounds.

Mr Yang was known in the legal case only as H6 until the anonymity order was lifted on Monday.

He is listed as a director of Hampton Group International, a business consultancy which claims to act as a bridge between China and the rest of the world.

The 50-year-old worked as a junior civil servant in China before heading to the UK in 2002 to study and he was granted indefinite leave to remain in 2013.

Mr Yang – also known as Christopher Yang – was the founder-partner of Pitch@Palace China.

The Pitch@Palace initiative was the Duke of York’s scheme to support entrepreneurs.

Mr Yang was first excluded from Britain by then-home secretary Suella Braverman in 2023, when the Home Office said he was believed to have carried out “covert and deceptive activity” for the Chinese Communist Party.

The businessman suggested he was a victim of increasingly hawkish views on China under the Conservative administration at the time.

“The political climate has changed and unfortunately, I have fallen victim to this,” Mr Yang said.

“When relations are good, and Chinese investment is sought, I am welcome in the UK. When relations sour, an anti-China stance is taken, and I am excluded,” he said.

Judges at a specialist tribunal in London last week ruled Mrs Braverman had been “entitled to conclude” that he “represented a risk to the national security” after he launched an appeal against the decision.

The businessman had brought a case to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) after his initial exclusion in 2023 but his appeal was dismissed.

In his statement, Mr Yang hit out at the process which led to his ban from entering the UK.

“I have been excluded from seeing most of the evidence that was used against me under a process which is widely acknowledged by SIAC practitioners as inherently unfair: decisions are made based on secret evidence and closed proceedings, which has been described as ‘taking blind shots at a hidden target’,” Mr Yang said.

“On their own fact finding, even the three judges in this case concluded that there was ‘not an abundance of evidence’ against me, their decision was ‘finely balanced’, and there could be an ‘innocent explanation’ for my activities. This has not been reported in the media.”

Downing Street rejected Mr Yang’s criticism of the process he had faced, insisting Sir Keir Starmer had confidence in SIAC and the independence of the courts.

Relations between the UK and China have improved since Sir Keir took office and in November he became the first prime minister to meet Xi Jinping since 2018.

But the Prime Minister acknowledged he was “concerned about the challenge that China poses”.

He defended his strategy for dealing with China: “Our approach is one of engagement, of co-operating where we need to co-operate, particularly on issues like climate change, to challenge where we must and where we should, particularly on issues like human rights, and to compete when it comes to trade.

“That’s the strategic approach that we have set out as a UK Government.”

Two of the Commons’ most prominent critics of the Beijing administration warned about the extent of the activities of the United Front Work Department (UFWD), the branch of the Chinese state Mr Yang is alleged to have links with.

Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith told BBC Radio 4’s Today: “The reality for us is very simple – China is a very clear threat.”

Sir Iain also suggested the Labour Government’s approach to engaging with Beijing meant the UK was viewed as the “soft underbelly” of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance by partners the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Former security minister Tom Tugendhat told BBC Breakfast: “I’m absolutely certain that there are members of the United Front Work Department who are active right now in attempting to influence journalism, academics, politics, and the whole lot. This is really the tip of the iceberg.

“So, the story, I can understand why it’s been about Prince Andrew, but it’s not really about Prince Andrew. It’s about the way the Chinese Communist Party is seeking to exert influence here in the United Kingdom.”