PRINCE Andrew allowed the Chinese businessman at the heart of a spy scandal to enter the heart of Britain’s defence establishment on several occasions, sources have revealed.
The revelations show that the friendship between both men spans back much further than previously suspected.
The Duke of York, who earned praise as a Royal Navy helicopter pilot during the Falkland War, held the rank of Commander by 2001 and was attached to the Diplomatic Directorate of the Naval Staff to the MoD.
Hos role was primarily aimed at forming relations with foreign naval attaches.
But last night Whitehall sources revealed that the alleged Chinese spy – known as H6 for legal reasons – had access to the MoD’s Whitehall headquarters on three separate occasions at the Duke’s invitation.
“It only required his command that a name be out on the list at reception , and it would have been done without question,” said one source. “Accurate or not, the perception was that crossing him was a career-risking act.”
The Chinese businessman attended the MoD’s HQ a third time, when invited to a party organised by Andrew to celebrate his retirement from active service in July 2001, after a 22-year career.
According to sources who attended the low-key shindig, guests were asked to pay for the cheese and wine they consumed.
Some 19 years later H6 was invited to another of Andrew’s parties- the time to celebrate the royal’s 60th birthday at Royal Lodge. He is said to have also visited Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle.
Andrew’s connections with “H6” came to the public eye last week after the businessman attempted to appeal against a decision to ban his entry to the Britain on the bsis that he had conducted “covert and deceptive activity”.
The Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) found evidence to support concerns by former Home Secretary Suella Braverman that H6 was” a risk to the national security of the United Kingdom, and that she was entitled to conclude that his exclusion was justified and proportionate”.
in 2021 he had been stopped and questioned at the UK border, whereupon he was instructed to hand over mobile phone.
Correspondence on the device revealed the strength of his relationship with Prince Andrew.
In one Andrew’s aide, Dominic Hampshire, told H6: ”Outside of the closest internal confidants, you sit at the very top of a tree that many, many people would like to be on.”
Mr Hampshire also confirmed to H6 that he could act for Prince Andrew in talks “with potential partners and investors in China”.
Other correspondence on his phone suggested H6 had “deliberately obscured his links” with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the United Front Work Department (UFWD)
The UFWD is a network of groups that Chinese leader Xi Jinping has described as a “magic weapon” to bolster Beijing’s reach abroad.
In statement last week, Andrew confirmed he had met the man “through official channels” and there was “nothing of a sensitive nature ever discussed”.
Royal expert Margaret Holder said: “It now seems that Andrew and this enemy agent go back further than we thought – back to 2001 when Andrew retired from the Navy. This is the same year he did/ didn’t go to a Pizza Express in Woking, depending on whether you believe him or Virginia Giuffre, who later accused him of “sexual assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress”.
She added: ““The unnamed Chinese spy certainly knew how to land a vulnerable royal with an unstable appetite for grandeur at someone else’s expense. He was rewarded with private visits to royal residences- rather like Andrew’s other friends, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.”
The MoD and Duke’s of ce were approached for comment.
