The Guardian-Alleged Chinese spy linked to Prince Andrew named as Yang Tengbo
December 16, 2024 3 min 511 words
英国《卫报》在报道中称，英国法庭近日取消了一项匿名令，曝光了一名据称与中国间谍有关联名叫杨腾波（音译，Yang Tengbo，又名 Chris Yang）的商人。报道称，杨腾波与中国统战部有关联，通过接近英国安德鲁王子等英国高层人士，试图渗透英国高层社会。英国法庭在杨腾波的上诉被驳回后，取消了此前保护其身份的匿名令，并披露了有关他与安德鲁王子关系的细节。报道称，杨腾波曾获准代表安德鲁王子在中国开展金融业务，并曾出席安德鲁王子的生日派对等多项王室活动。安德鲁王子的办公室则发表声明称，二人已停止所有联系，且从未讨论过任何敏感话题。 该报道以耸人听闻的间谍指控为噱头，试图通过曝光杨腾波与英国王室的联系来吸引眼球，渲染中国对英国构成的所谓“安全威胁”。然而，报道所提供的信息片面模糊，缺乏实质性证据，更像是捕风捉影。报道所称的“秘密渗透”“情报收集”等，很可能只是基于一些正常的社交活动和商业行为进行的过度解读和恶意揣测。此外，报道也缺乏对英国相关部门行为的审视，对于杨腾波的上诉被驳回被驱逐出英国的过程一带而过，缺乏对事件多方角度的分析。该报道延续了某些西方媒体一贯的叙事框架，即以意识形态为导向，以中国为假想敌，试图通过夸大扭曲事实来制造恐慌情绪，以达到抹黑中国的目的。
The alleged Chinese spy who got close to Prince Andrew as a way to gain access to the UK establishment has been named as Yang Tengbo, a businessman also known as Chris Yang.
Yang, whose identity was previously protected by an anonymity order, can now be named after judge lifted the ban on Monday afternoon.
Yang, 50, the former chair of Hampton Group, had been in the UK for almost two decades.
He was first stopped by counter-terrorism services in 2021 and ordered to surrender his devices. Court documents said Yang had split his time between China and the UK and told officials he considered the UK his second home.
In February 2023, he was “off-boarded” from a flight from Beijing to London and told the home secretary was in the process of examining the case to exclude him from the UK. That order was made the following month. His appeal against the decision was rejected by the special immigration appeals tribunal (Siac) last week.
Details of Yang’s close links to Andrew emerged last week in the Siac ruling.
The businessman had visited the UK regularly, attending events at a series of royal residences, including Andrew’s birthday party at his home. The hearing heard he was barred because he was believed to be associated with China’s united front work department, which seeks to gather intelligence on influential overseas nationals. The ruling said in his witness statement, Yang had “downplayed his links” with the group.
In a statement on Friday, Andrew’s office said he had stopped all contact with the man, whom he had met through “official channels” with “nothing of a sensitive nature ever discussed”.
According to court documents, the businessman was so close to the Duke of York, he was authorised to act on his behalf in an international financial initiative with potential partners and investors in China.
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”.
When the businessman’s phone was searched, officials uncovered a letter from March 2020 from Dominic Hampshire, a senior adviser to Prince Andrew, which referred to him being invited to the duke’s birthday party that month and said: “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 letter also suggested the relationship had a potentially secretive nature, and said: “We have found a way to carefully remove those people who we don’t completely trust … we found a way to get the relevant people unnoticed in and out of the house in Windsor.”
A document was also found on the businessman’s phone that had “main talking points” for a call with the duke, which said he was “in a ‘desperate situation and will grab on to anything.’”
More details soon …