Prince Andrew met with a man allegedly at the centre of a spying operation on British MPs. Photographs show the Duke of York posing for pictures and shaking hands with the Chinese official who is accused of masterminding a plot to obtain intelligence from Westminster.
Andrew, a former UK trade envoy, held meetings in 2018 and 2019 with Cai Qi with the pair posing as they celebrated “jointly building a golden era in China-UK relations”. Prosecutors believe that Cai was overseeing the alleged intelligence gathering operation, handling a raft of sensitive information passed to him by former parliamentary researchers Christopher Berry and Christopher Cash. Both Berry and Cash have denied any wrongdoing and the case against the pair collapsed on the eve of trial after the government refused to label China as an “enemy.”
According to the Foreign Affairs Office of the Beijing municipal government, Andrew met Cai when he was the UK’s trade envoy in 2018 and 2019.
The first visit between the pair is understood to have been in May 2018 during a five-day goodwill visit to the UK led by a CCP delegation, which saw Cai, an influential figure within the Chinese Communist party, meet several important political figures including Sir Sadiq Khan,Nicola Sturgeon and the then leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn.
Andrew then met him again the following month during a trip to China.
It is understood that the duke met the Cai, a close ally of Chinese president Xi Jinping at least three times during the time of the alleged espionage activities, with their final meeting occurring in April 2019 as Andrew returned to China, a visit Cai hailed as “jointly building a golden era in China-UK relations”
The duke has previously been mired in controversy over his links with Beijing officials, with Andrew facing severe scrutiny last year over his links to another Chinese official who was later barred from entering the UK on national security grounds.
The revelation comes as the head of MI5 Ken McCallum admitted he was “frustrated” by the collapse of the case, as he warned that “Chinese state actors” present a national security threat to the UK “every day”.
MI5 director general Sir Ken was asked if he was frustrated by the collapse of the case as he gave a speech at the agency’s London headquarters.
“Of course I am frustrated when opportunities to prosecute national security threatening activity are not followed through, for whatever reason,” he said.
The spy chief said that the alleged activity was stopped, adding: “I would invite everyone to not miss the fact that this was a strong disruption in the interest of the UK’s national security.”