Damaged reputation led to links, show documents released by UK court on Prince Andrew’s ties to Chinese 'spy'

Prince Andrew leaves after attending the Christmas day service at St Mary Magdalene Church in Sandringham in Norfolk. (AP photo)

A UK court on Friday released more documents detailing how Prince Andrew’s damaged reputation and desperate need for cash led him to become entangled with a suspected Chinese spy.

The Special Immigration Appeals Commission released the witness statement of Dominic Hampshire, a senior aide to Andrew who helped arrange meetings between the prince and the suspected spy, Chinese businessman Tengbo Yang. Yang was eventually authorized to operate on Andrew’s behalf as he sought Chinese investors for an initiative called the Eurasia Fund, AP reported.

The documents also included a statement about the Duke of York's line of communication to China’s president Xi Jinping - including sending an annual birthday letter - and how MI5 intervened to warn against Andrew having contact with the alleged spy.

Andrew needed to find other ways to support himself after he was forced to give up all royal duties following a disastrous interview with the BBC in 2019, Hampshire said in the statement.

“After the Newsnight interview and in the following few months, it was clear that the duke’s reputation was irrecoverable,” Hampshire said in a 10-page statement dated May 25, 2024. “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,” he added.

British authorities worried that Andrew’s situation left him vulnerable to manipulation by Yang, who they believe was working on behalf of the United Front Work Department, an arm of the Chinese Communist Party that is used to influence foreign entities. Yang has denied the allegations, AP reported.

The British government barred Yang from entering the country in 2023 as a threat to national security. The Special Immigration Appeals Commission upheld that decision in December 2024.

In a tribunal hearing in December that upheld the earlier decision to bar Yang from the UK, it was revealed that Yang was authorized to act on Prince Andrew’s behalf during business meetings with potential Chinese investors in the UK, according to a report by CNN.

Yang reportedly forged a close relationship with the prince and was the co-founder of Pitch@Palace China, which expanded the duke’s Pitch@Palace initiative into China.

Hampshire also said Yang helped Prince Andrew draft letters to Xi discussing the Eurasia Fund, something Yang had described in his written evidence to the tribunal as a way to “upgrade” the duke’s Pitch@Palace initiative “into an investment-type business, or a fund.” He was also tasked with talking to “relevant people” in China, per British press agency PA.

“The royal household, including the late queen, were fully aware of this communication – it was certainly accepted and it may be fair to say it was even encouraged – it was an open channel of communication that was useful to have,” Hampshire said in the statement.

Hampshire said he met twice with Prince Andrew and King Charles over the six months prior to giving his witness statement to discuss “what the duke can do moving forwards in a way that is acceptable to His Majesty.” Those talks included discussing the Eurasia Fund, according to PA.

Hampshire’s statement was initially kept private, but the commission released it after appeals by news organizations that argued it was in the public interest.

Hampshire, who left Andrew’s service in 2022, said he sought to keep his statement out of the public domain to protect confidential communications with the security services and Buckingham Palace, according to news agency AP.

The relationship between the prince and Yang came about shortly after the duke’s disastrous 2019 BBC interview on his relationship with late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which Hampshire said led to his belief that the prince’s reputation was “irrecoverable.”

According to PA, Hampshire also said he never saw a “red flag” with Yang (who also went by the name Chris), and emphasized Yang “categorically does not have a close relationship with the duke.”

“Chris, of course, doesn’t have the duke’s telephone number or his email address and does not have the ability to talk directly to the duke on his own - ever. This is normal practice and Chris’s relationship with the duke is the same as numerous others,” he said, according to PA.

He also said Andrew “fully complied” with advice to end all contact with Yang.