Prince Andrew, the younger brother of King Charles III, has been caught up in a suspected case of Chinese spying, after a British court upheld a decision to bar from the country a Chinese man who was a “close confidant” of his on national security grounds.
The ruling by the court, issued on Thursday, found that the 50-year-old man, referred to only as H6, had a web of relationships with Andrew and other senior British officials. He also had links to the Chinese Communist Party and front organizations that seek to project Chinese influence in foreign countries, the court said.
“The Applicant had been in a position to generate relationships with prominent U.K. figures and senior Chinese officials that could be leveraged for political interference purposes,” said the court, known as the Special Immigration Appeals Commission, in a 53-page ruling.
The Chinese man, who studied in Britain and started a company to advise British companies about investment opportunities in China, was retained as an agent for Prince Andrew, who had worked a decade earlier as a special envoy for trade and investment for the British government.
Dominic Hampshire, then a senior adviser to Andrew, confirmed in a 2021 letter to the man that he “could act on behalf of the Duke in engagements with potential partners and investors in China.” Andrew, the second son of Queen Elizabeth II, also has the title Duke of York.
Security services obtained the letter after seizing a mobile phone and other digital devices from the Chinese man after he was stopped at the border in Nov. 2021.
