Here’s what we know about the Chinese spy linked to UK’s Prince Andrew

Here’s what we know about H6

H6, a 50-year-old person, was born in China in March 1974. He worked as a junior civil servant in China before arriving in the UK in 2002.

He has a Master’s degree in Public Administration and Public Policy from the University of York. In 2005, he founded a company, which also remains unnamed due to legal reasons.

Links to the Chinese Communist Party

Details of H6’s alleged espionage were revealed in the judgment order which can be accessed on the UK judiciary’s official website. The Home Department submitted to the court that H6 downplayed his links to the United Front Work Department (UFWD) and Prince Andrew.

The UFWD is a central committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) that works to increase the ruling party’s influence within and outside China.

In a text message, H6 reportedly called himself an overseas representative of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), a political advisory body to the CCP. H6 has maintained that it is difficult for a Chinese businessman to avoid links to the CCP.

H6’s relationship with Prince Andrew

In November 2021, H6 was stopped at an airport under counter-terrorism laws, and his phone was seized. Documents found on his phone reportedly revealed the extent of his relationship with Prince Andrew.

In a letter dated November 6, 2021, Dominic Hampshire, a senior adviser to Prince Andrew, authorised H6 to “act on behalf of the Duke in engagements with potential partners and investors in China”. This meant that H6 was in a position to connect Chinese investors/officials with prominent UK figures. According to the Home Department, this “could be leveraged for political interference purposes by the Chinese State.”

The court ruling states that H6 “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”. It also added, “It is obvious that the pressures on the Duke could make him vulnerable to the misuse of that sort of influence.”

In another letter from March 2020, Hampshire told H6, “…outside of his (Prince Andrew’s) closest internal confidants, you sit at the very top of a tree that many, many people would like to be on.”

The Duke invited H6 to the Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, and St James’s Palace, The Times has reported.

A statement from Prince Andrew’s office, however, notes that the Duke has “ceased all contacts” with the man in question. It added that Prince Andrew met the individual through “official channels” with “nothing of a sensitive nature ever discussed”.

According to The Guardian, the H6, a prominent businessman, was photographed alongside former prime ministers David Cameron and Theresa May. He reportedly kept these photos on his desk at a London office. They were shown in a Chinese television documentary featuring H6.

Do we know the real identity of H6?

UK parliamentarians are contemplating if they should reveal the name of the Chinese spy to deter the government from strengthening its ties with China. The court’s order of anonymity protecting H6 is also expected to be lifted soon.

According to the US-based Radio Free Asia, H6 is a businessman named Yang Tengbo. He is a director of the consultancy Hampton Group International. The UK government has yet to officially name the Chinese spy.