Chinese confidante Prince Andrew deported from UK as spy

This article was last updated on December 13, 2024

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Chinese confidante Prince Andrew deported from UK as spy

A Chinese businessman who was a confidant of Prince Andrew is no longer allowed to enter the United Kingdom. The government suspects him of influencing on behalf of the Chinese government: the 50-year-old man was so close to King Charles’ brother that he was even invited to his birthday party.

The case came to light because the man, known only as H6, appealed against the March 2023 decision to no longer admit him. The judges now confirm that the government decision was rightly taken in the national interest. They said Andrew had developed an “unusually close relationship” with H6.

“The Home Secretary was entitled to conclude that the claimant posed a risk to the national security of the United Kingdom,” the judges therefore wrote in the verdict. “She was entitled to conclude that an entry ban is justified and proportionate.”

‘High in the tree’

H6 had worked as a low-level civil servant in China when he went to study at York University in 2002 in his thirties. With a British degree in public administration, he then started working as a trade advisor to British companies in China. He previously divided his time between Great Britain and his native country.

The close ties to the prince came to light when letters from a royal advisor were found during a customs inspection in 2021. This showed that H6 was authorized to act as the prince’s representative towards business relations in China.

Andrew’s advisor impressed on H6 how much confidence his boss had in him. “Never underestimate the power of that relationship. With the exception of a few internal relatives, you are sitting at the absolute top of a tree that many, many people would like to sit in.”

He added that a way had also been found “to get the relevant individuals in and out of the house in Windsor unnoticed”. It was not clear who or why had to be smuggled to the estate of then Queen Elizabeth.

Previously discredited

The domestic security service MI5 feared that H6 could use its ties with the prince to influence government positions on China. H6 is said to be employed by an organization that the Chinese Communist Party uses to gain influence abroad. According to MI5, his behavior would fit into the Chinese government’s “patient, well-financed deception practices to buy and exercise influence.”

It is not the first time that Prince Andrew has been criticized for his major business interests with questionable figures: in the 1980s he was nicknamed Airmiles Andy because of his tendency to fly around the world to make deals. His ties to the wealthy sex offender Jeffrey Epstein led to his arrest in 2022 reached a settlement with the woman who accused him of sexual abuse. His mother then stripped him of his public office, military ranks and the title His Royal Highness.

Buckingham Palace does not want to respond to the allegations now, because Andrew is no longer part of the British royal family.