Suspected Chinese spy linked to Prince Andrew banned from UK. What to know

A tribunal in the United Kingdom has upheld a government decision to ban a Chinese businessman with alleged links to Prince Andrew from entering the country.

Judges on Thursday said the alleged spy – named as “H6” – posed a national security risk, and they threw out his appeal against an earlier decision to exclude him from the UK.

The man had reportedly become a “close confidant” of scandal-hit Andrew and was invited to royal residences, such as Buckingham Palace. The man also allegedly met with two former UK leaders on various occasions.

According to a statement on Friday, Andrew’s office said the Duke of York has “ceased all contact” with the alleged spy. The pair had met through official channels and did not discuss matters of a “sensitive nature”, the statement read.

However, some lawmakers have voiced fears that the man could already have influenced the duke or other top officials and are pushing for decisive government action against China.

The Chinese embassy in the UK has denied the claims, blaming “individuals in the UK who are always eager to fabricate baseless ‘spy’ stories targeting China”.

Here’s what to know about the unfolding controversy:

Who is H6, the alleged Chinese spy?

The 50-year-old is a former junior civil servant in China who came to the UK in 2022 as a student, according to court documents. He earned a master’s degree in public administration and public policy at the University of York before setting up a firm, B Ltd, that advises UK-based companies on their China operations. In 2013, he was granted an indefinite permit to live and work in the UK but divides his time between the two countries.

He was first stopped and searched upon entry to the UK on November 6, 2021. Authorities seized his devices for investigation and retained data from them after handing them back four days later.

In February 2023, he was off-boarded from a Beijing to London flight and informed that he was in the process of being banned from entering the UK based on an investigation by British intelligence authorities.

The office of Suella Braverman, the then-home secretary, officially banned the man in March 2023, citing his engagement in “covert and deceptive activity” for China’s United Front Work Department, an arm of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) focused on foreign intelligence.

What did a UK tribunal rule about H6?

In April 2023, H6 appealed to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission, a tribunal in London, arguing that the ruling was unlawful and asking for a review.

In hearings, H6 said he was not involved in politics and had limited links to the Chinese government. His legal representative told the tribunal that H6 had never been a member of the CCP or acted on the party’s behalf.

However, the court in its ruling on Thursday upheld the Home Office’s decision and reiterated that H6 posed a threat to the UK’s national security. The businessman “was 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”, the tribunal’s decision read.

The court granted H6’s request to remain anonymous.

Nigel Farage, leader of the right-wing Reform UK party, said he expected his MPs to attempt to name the alleged spy in parliament this week. Parliamentary privilege allows MPs to make statements in parliament without facing legal repercussions.

How is H6 connected to Prince Andrew?

Andrew and H6 reportedly met in 2012 and grew so close that the duke invited him to Buckingham Palace twice, according to The Times newspaper. The suspect also visited St James’s Palace and Windsor Castle and attended a birthday party for Andrew, a tight affair with close confidants, in 2020.

The court’s written decision on Thursday said the man had earned “an unusual degree of trust from a senior member of the Royal Family”.

In a letter found on the suspect’s devices during the initial stop and search in November 2021, Dominic Hampshire, a senior adviser to Andrew, had written to H6, confirming that he was authorised to act on Andrew’s behalf regarding potential partners and investors in China. Hampshire also confirmed that with H6’s help, he had bypassed or “removed” former private secretaries to Andrew and deemed them untrustworthy.

The letter, sent sometime in 2020, further read: “I also hope that it is clear to you where you sit with my principal and indeed his family. … You should never underestimate the strength of that relationship. Outside of his closest internal confidants, you sit at the very top of a tree that many, many people would like to be on.”

The suspect was acting on the assumption that Andrew, who has been linked to a slew of controversies and is reportedly financially squeezed, was in a “desperate situation, and will grab on to anything”, according to documents found on his devices.

The prince was forced to stop royal duties and give up public funding because of his friendship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who ended his own life in prison in 2019. In 2022, Andrew settled allegations of sexual assault out of court.

Have there been similar China spy cases in the UK?

Yes, the UK’s intelligence agencies are on high alert regarding China’s alleged efforts to influence government policy by targeting a range of people in politics.

In April, UK prosecutors charged Christopher Cash, 29, a former researcher working in parliament with Conservative politicians, and academic Christopher Berry, 32, with spying for China from December 2021 to February 2023. Both had allegedly collected, recorded or communicated information that authorities deemed nationally sensitive and was “intended to be, directly or indirectly, useful to an enemy”, prosecutors said.

The two men pleaded not guilty at an October hearing at London’s Old Bailey. The case is ongoing.

British lawmakers, including leading China critic and former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith, have previously told reporters they were victims of attempted hacking and impersonation attempts by individuals linked to the Chinese government. After the ruling regarding H6, Duncan Smith told the BBC there are “many, many more” spies in the UK.

“The reality for us is very simple – China is a very clear threat,” he said.

What could happen next?

Conservative politicians are pressuring the UK’s Labour government to act decisively against China in the face of the latest controversy.

They are also calling for H6 to be named and for Andrew to be fully investigated.

Duncan Smith called the government “weak”, claiming it did not want to criticise China.

He is pushing for the UK to implement a foreign influence registration scheme, which would require individuals to disclose who they are in an arrangement with, what activity they have been directed to undertake and when the arrangement was made. The scheme was expected to launch in 2024, but the change of government meant it has been delayed to an unspecified date.

Meanwhile, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has cast the situation as “complex”. China is the UK’s fifth biggest trading partner with Beijing exporting products ranging from cars to computers.

She told the BBC that the UK “will continue to take a very strong approach to our national security”, adding: “Of course, with China we also need to make sure we have that economic interaction, economic cooperation in place as well.”

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