The suspected Chinese “spy” banned from the UK amid fears he was using Prince Andrew as cover for espionage has been sensationally unmasked as Yang Tengbo, also known as Chris Yang.
Until a remarkable anonymity order was lifted in the High Court, the “self-made businessman and entrepreneur” was only known as H6.
But he has now become the face of the latest alleged high-level scandal involving the communist state in a move that will further sour tense East-West relations.
Moments after he was unmasked as part of a High Court order agreed by himself, Yang gushed about how he had dedicated his life to the UK after making Britain his second home two decades ago.
But his fierce denial of wrongdoing, and unequivocal denunciation of spying, have failed to satisfy some who feel he doth protest too much.
Yang, 50, worked as a civil servant in China before coming to the UK as a student in 2002.
Here he founded lobbying firm Hampton Group International, a consultancy set up to foster relationships between the UK and China.
He is alleged to have used his impeccable contacts, access and trade credentials to secure invites to high-profile events and royal residences while enjoying settled status, a home, extensive business interests, and privileged access.
He was regarded as a close confidant of Prince Andrew. It is not known when they met but the pair grew so close he was invited to the royal’s birthday party in 2020, twice visited Buckingham Palace, and entered St James’s Palace and Windsor Castle at the invitation of the duke, sources claimed.
Yang is said to have built up “an unusual degree of trust” with the disgraced 64-year-old Duke of York, who served as the UK’s Special Representative for International Trade and Investment for 10 years until July 2011, and was told by the royal’s aide Dominic Hampshire he could act on his behalf when dealing with potential investors in China.
But he was expelled from Britain last year amid claims he was gathering information for the United Front Work Department (UFWD) – an arm of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the founding and sole ruling party of the People’s Republic of China.
Yang also met Lord and Lady Cameron at a Downing Street reception and former PM Lady Theresa May and her husband Philip at a black tie event, keeping pictures of each at his London office for posterity.
He had been in the UK for almost 20-years before first being stopped by counter-terrorism services in 2021 and ordered to surrender his devices. Court documents said he had split his time between China and the UK and told officials he considered the UK his second home.
He was kicked out of Britain last year by then-Home Secretary Suella Braverman and a subsequent appeal against that decision was rejected last week by the Special Immigration Appeals Tribunal.
That hearing heard Yang was barred because of his alleged association with UFWD, which seeks to gather intelligence on influential overseas nationals. Yang “downplayed his links” with the group, according to the ruling, with UK security services fearing the case is yet another example of how the Chinese Communist Party seeks to flex its muscles and exert influence in Britain.
In the judgment that upheld his exclusion from the UK, the judge found Yang “won a significant degree, one could say an unusual degree, of trust from a senior member of the royal family who was prepared to enter into business activities with him”.
Prince Andrew denies any wrongdoing and in a statement said he had stopped all contact with a man he first met through “official channels” with “nothing of a sensitive nature ever discussed”.
