Britain’s Prince Andrew sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) a letter on his birthday every year as part of a “communication channel” to support the British royal’s platform for entrepreneurs, court documents published on Friday showed.
The documents came to light following a legal challenge brought by Chinese businessman Yang Tengbo (楊騰波), who was described as a “close confidant” of Andrew and was banned from Britain on the grounds he was a suspected Chinese spy.
Yang, who has said that “the widespread description of me as a ‘spy’ is entirely untrue,” is appealing against the rejection of his challenge to the decision to ban him from the country.
Photo: Reuters
Documents released by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission included a witness statement provided by Dominic Hampshire, who became Andrew’s senior adviser in 2019.
Hampshire said in the statement that Andrew had regular communication with China’s Xi in relation to the prince’s Pitch@Palace initiative to encourage entrepreneurs.
“The Duke has always had a communication channel with the president, largely to support the success of Pitch@Palace in China, and this was never hidden,” Hampshire said.
“The Duke sends a letter to the president for his birthday each year,” he added. “The Royal Household, including the late queen were fully aware of this communication — it was certainly accepted, and it may be fair to say that perhaps even encouraged — it was an open channel of communication that was useful to have.”
Hampshire’s witness statement also said that in late 2023 and early last year, he had two meetings with Andrew and King Charles about an international financial initiative, after Yang was banned from the UK.
Yang was banned from the UK after the contents of his phone were downloaded when he was stopped under counterterrorism laws at a British border in 2021.
That revealed that Andrew authorized Yang to set up the Eurasia Fund to engage with potential partners and investors in China, a December ruling said.
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