SupplyYang Tengbo has been identified as a 50-year-old Chinese businessman and alleged spy who is banned from Britain.
The British authorities have accused him. constituted “extraordinary confidence limits”. Developed relationships with Prince Andrew and with politicians to be “used” by China.
Details of the charges against Mr Yang emerged last week after a special immigration appeals tribunal upheld a Home Office order banning him from traveling to the UK on national security grounds after a long-running legal battle.
A court order that meant it could previously only be identified as H6 was lifted on Monday.
Mr Yang has said the accusations against him of being a spy are “totally false” and has denied any illegal work.
What do we know about Mr. Yang’s life and work?
Yang Tengbo, Also known as Chris Yang, was born in China in 1974. He first came to the UK in 2002 and studied in London for a year, before earning a Masters in Public Administration and Public Policy at York University.
In 2005 he founded the consultancy firm Hampton Group International – one of five companies of which he is publicly listed as a director in the UK.
On 21 May 2013, he was granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK. He told the tribunal he spent an average of two weeks per month in the UK before the pandemic.
Speaking on condition of anonymity on Monday, he described Britain as his “second home” and said he would “never do anything to harm it”.
What action have the UK authorities taken?
On 6 November 2021, Mr Yang was stopped at the UK border for reasons that have not been made public. He handed over his phone and other digital devices.
In February 2022, it filed a legal claim to stop the UK government retaining its data – a bid it first won and then lost on appeal.
He was then told by UK authorities that he was affiliated with the United Front Work Department (UFWD) – the secretive arm of the Chinese government that manages Beijing’s cultural influence operations.
The UFWD has been linked to several cases of alleged Chinese state interference in Western countries, and researchers say it often seeks to recruit legitimate Chinese business and community groups in foreign countries.
A year later in February 2023, Mr Yang was “de-boarded” from a flight to London as he was returning from Beijing. He was told that Britain was in the process of deciding to expel him from the country.
Mr. Yang’s lawyers called on the government to disclose the charges against him and give him an opportunity to present his case.
On March 15, 2023, then-Home Secretary Sylla Braverman ordered Mr. Yang’s residency rights revoked. He banned it from Britain because it would be “conducive to the public good”.
Mr. Yang was notified of this on March 23, 2023 and launched a legal challenge shortly thereafter.
What was the evidence against Mr. Yang?
Some of the evidence that informed the Home Office’s decision to ban Mr Yang was included in one. Court decision Upholding the decision published last week.
Authorities relied on data from Mr. Yang’s devices when he was detained in 2021, including documents that UK officials said linked the UFWD and other Beijing-linked groups. There is a hint.
UK officials argued that this showed he was “frequently connected to officials linked to the Chinese state”. They also said that he had “at times deliberately obscured” his links to the Chinese government, the Chinese Communist Party and the UFWD, and alleged that his account had a “deceptive element”.
The Home Office also argued that although Mr Yang said he had not received direct orders to interfere in UK interests, “he could be expected to understand the aims of the UFWD and the CCP” and “without They will be actively engaged in a task”.
He also pointed to Mr Yang’s membership of the London-based 48 Group Club, which promotes trade between the UK and China. Security officials argued that Mr. Yang’s honorary membership could be used by Beijing for purposes of political interference.
In response to US-funded Radio Free Asia, the 48 Group Club said Mr Yang was never actively involved in running the group.
Although the tribunal ruled that in some instances there was not “overwhelming” evidence against Mr Yang, and said there could be an “innocent explanation” in others, it ultimately decided that to justify MI5’s conclusion ” Substantial” content is a security risk.
Mr Yang said he would appeal the decision.
How is Mr. Yang related to Prince Andrew?
British authorities discovered a letter from Dominic Hampshire, Prince Andrew’s senior adviser, which said Mr Yang could act on the prince’s behalf in engagements with potential investors in China.
Mr Hampshire also said in a letter to Mr Yang: “Outside of that [the prince’s] The closest inner confidant, you sit right at the top of a tree that many people would love to live on.”
It is unclear whether this was a true claim made by Mr Hampshire, who has not spoken publicly since being named in the ruling.
But the Home Office saw it as evidence that Mr Yang was in a position to “develop relationships between prominent British figures and senior Chinese officials” that Beijing could “exploit for the purposes of political interference”. .
A document has also been found listing “main talking points” for the call with Prince Andrew, which says the prince is “in a desperate situation and will grab anything.”
Prince Andrew said he had “cut off all contact” with Mr Yang after receiving advice from the government, but did not specify when contact had ceased. His office said they met “through official channels” and “nothing of a sensitive nature was ever discussed”.
SupplyWhat did Mr. Yang say?
Mr. Yang has vehemently denied the allegations against him. In his first submission to the tribunal, he said he had no political affiliations in China, had never been a member of the Chinese Communist Party and had never carried out activities for the UFWD on its behalf. .
In further submissions, he also said that he has only limited links with the Chinese state and that “linkage with UFWD is inevitable”.
Mr Yang said he was caught up in a new political climate in which Britain had hardened its views on China.
“When the relationship is good, and Chinese investment is sought, I am welcome in the UK,” Mr Yang said.
A spokesman for Beijing’s foreign ministry said on Monday that “this kind of unfair publicity cannot be denied”, adding to a statement last week that said “some people in the UK have always accused China of Targets are keen to fabricate baseless ‘spy’ stories”.
With reporting from BBC Verify