United Kingdom: a relative of Prince Andrew suspected of spying for China

A new scandal for the British royal family. Prince Andrew made headlines in the country’s media on Friday December 13 due to his proximity to a businessman accused of spying for China. A London court had validated the day before the decision of the British authorities in 2023 to prohibit the entry into the territory of this man, described as “a confidant” of Andrew, brother of King Charles III.

The Ministry of the Interior considered that this individual was engaged in “secret and deceptive activities” on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party and that he was likely to pose a threat to national security. The man, aged 50 and simply presented as “H6”, challenged this measure but the appeals commission responsible for immigration matters rejected his appeal. The judges considered that he was in a position to “create relationships between senior Chinese officials and British figures that could be exploited for political interference by the Chinese state”.

The man had become close to Andrew to the point of being invited to his birthday in 2020, and was authorized to act on the prince’s behalf to seek out potential Chinese investors, a hearing in July was told. The former secretary of state for security under the previous conservative government, Tom Tugendhat, on Friday judged this affair “extremely embarrassing”.

“This demonstrates, I fear, the very clear ambition of the Chinese state to exercise its influence over foreign countries”he commented on the BBC. For his part, the Duke of York, title of Prince Andrew, claimed Friday evening to have “follow the advice” of the government and “stopped all contact” with the individual in question “as soon as concerns have been raised”indicated his services in a short statement. They add that the Duke met this individual “through official channels and nothing sensitive was discussed” between them.

In 2021, Prince Andrew was directly implicated in a sexual assault case linked to the fallen American billionaire Jeffrey Epstein. He finally concluded an agreement worth 14 million euros with the plaintiff Virginia Giuffre, whoaccused of assaulting her three times in 2001, when she was only 17 years old.