Prince Andrew (file photo)
Prince Andrew was friends with a Chinese businessman who was known in court documents as H6. The 50-year old Chinese is suspected to be part of Chinese intelligence. The United Kingdom has banned him from re-entering the country. Prince Andrew hosted the Chinaman at official royal residences.
Prince Andrew, 64, is King Charles’ younger brother. Andrew is notoriously dimmed and has been mired in numerous scandals, including sexual abuse of undereage girls along with his American financier.
His Royal Highness (HRH), Prince Andrew is known for injudiciousness. He has often chosen unsavoury friends. He is the only member of the House of Windsor whom former members of staff and police protection officers castigate for his rudeness and impetuosity. He really believes he is a superior species. Servants sent to wake him up of a morning were routinely greeted with ‘F*** off’ for doing their duty.
H6 decided to out himself. His real name is Yang Tengbo. Mr. Yang said he has never done anything wrong. He has been travelling between the UK and China for decades. He has done honest business and this has been to the benefit of both countries.
In the late 1990s and 2000s Andrew was roving ambassador for trade. He travelled to many countries meeting leaders and business executives. He focussed on the Middle East and Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan is an oil-rich former Soviet country. It was very much an emerging economy. The West was keen to take Kazakhstan out of the Russian orbit.
HRH was to promote commerce between the UK and other countries. He was paid handsomely by the British taxpayer and given the best of everything. But the deal was he was not to engage in private commerce. It is now rumoured that he regularly brokered deals and took commission. Payments to him were disguised by going through shell companies and him using aliases. He also had payments made to his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson to hide the fact that he was the ultimate beneficiary. He and Sarah Ferguson managed to have an exceptionally friendly relationship after their divorce. Sarah was known for spending millions of GBP per annum after her divorce. She was constantly in debt and begging her ex-husband’s mother-in-law the Queen to bail her out financially. Her Majesty would politely but firmly say she had no financial obligation to her son’s ex-wife especially after she committed adultery, and she disgraced the royal family by making all sorts of unseemly TV shows for profit.
MI5 (British domestic intelligence) says that China has been running a large-scale espionage campaign in the United Kingdom for two decades. Chinese espionage has several goals. They want to steal any technological or scientific secrets they can to bolster their economy. They wish to spy on the British Military in case there is a war against the UK. They can also sell military secrets to Russia and other opponents of the United Kingdom. Beijing wants to harass and intimidate Chinese dissidents and human rights activists resident in the United Kingdom.
Over 1% of the UK population is ethnically Chinese. Only half of them come from Mailand China. The rest are Chinese Malaysians, Hong Kongers, Taiwanese, Chinese-Americans and the like.
There are hundreds of thousands of Chinese students in the United Kingdom. Fees from China are crucial to sustaining many British universities. UK universities tell academics not to publish research that may cause offence to the Chinese Government. Anything about the plight of Uyghurs enslaved by China will lead to dismissal.
Chinese companies are present in the UK. HSBC is a major Chinese bank on the British high street. It bought and replaced a British retail bank: the Midland Bank.
10% of Chinese adults are members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Members of the CCP swear lifelong fealty to the party. They must do anything the party asks in furtherance of its goals. That include spying. The higher you go in Chinese society the higher the % of people who are CCP members.
Yang Tengbo had met British prime ministers David Cameron and Theresa May. Therefore, Andrew was not the only one to have been foolish. But that was 6 years ago he met Theresa May. British intelligence may not have known that H6 was a Chinese spy that far back.
When Cameron was prime minister (2010-16) he hailed a ‘golden era’ of relations with China. The British economy was in the doldrums. Investment from China was needed badly. President Xi was even accorded a state visit despite China’s horrendous record on human rights. The United Kingdom was also very short sighted to allow its communications system to be compromised by Chinese firms.
Much of espionage is technological: hacking into computer systems and deciphering encrypted messages. This is called SIGINT (signals intelligence). Some of it is HUMINT (human intelligence). HUMINT is secret information that can only be gleaned by a person being in a particular place or in the company of certain persons.
Sensitive British government buildings such as palaces are regularly swept for bugs. The United Kingdom is fairly good at cyber intelligence. Therefore, it will be difficult for China to gain a serious amount of SIGINT. This makes HUMINT all the more vital.
H6 may have picked up tittle tattle at high society parties. Andrew having once been second in line to the throne will have been privy to many state secrets. He may have been indiscrete in the presence of H6. Or did H6 even bribe him?
To cultivate an agent in a target organisation, intelligence officers use methods called by the acronym: MICE: Money, Ideology, Compromise and Ego.
Money
Simply bribe him. Andrew used to receive several million GBP per annum from the taxpayer because he was a working royal. His duties were simply public appearances to cut the ribbon at a new hospital or visit an army base or go on a goodwill visit to another country. But he is known to be extremely avaricious. Financial opacity means we may never know who paid him what. He is rumoured to have bank accounts in false names or have illegal payments made from China to his friends who then held money on trust for him.
In 2007 Andrew put his house (Sunninghill Park) for sale for USD 15.7 million. A prominent Kazakh businessman named Timur Kulibayev bought it for USD 19.7 million. He was then the son-in-law of the President of Kazakhstan. Why would he pay USD 4 million over the asking price? Many speculate that this was a bribe. Kulibayev never lived in the house or rented it out. He did not maintain it and 9 years later had it demolished!
Andrew has received many very precious gifts from Chinese contacts. There is no such thing as a free lunch. But in China this is particularly so. A disinterested gift is unknown in Cathay. Bribery is a way of life in China. The only question is: what did the bribers receive in return?
Ideology
Andrew knows nothing and cares less about politics. He has an instinctive sympathy for dictators in the former USSR and Araby. In dictatorial states there is no pesky free press and no independent courts. Rich and powerful people can act without accountability. That appeals to him greatly. By contrast the British media often publish disobliging reportage about him.
Compromise
This is about creating blackmail material about a person’s shameful conduct. It could be financial, sexual or the person might be recorded cursing his parents or saying his disbelieves in the state religion. It is anything that would cause him to be shunned or avoided. The prince may well be subject to blackmail and is rumoured to have a predilection for girls below the age of legal consent. The former Soviet Union is full of intelligence agencies that like to use honeytrap (i.e. seduction) techniques to blackmail people whom they target. The prince regularly visited the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan. In a presidential suite in a 5 star hotel hidden cameras record his shenanigans. He is just the man to walk right into that trap. Western business executives were warned to be on their guard against over eager local women. But would a sex tape embarrass him? Possibly it would not. He might say publish and be damned.
Ego
Andrew is an egomaniac. As the second son, he was miffed that he would never wear the crown. He is said to have been the favourite of his late mother. He pleaded with her that his daughters Beatrice and Eugenie be given the title ‘princess’. It was done. Usually, these titles do not pass on to daughters of someone who is not in direct line to the crow.
because Andrew is cognitively subnormal it is easy to manipulate him. Laud him excessively and he will not be suspicious. Most royals realise they are ordinary people who happen to have been born into an extraordinary situation. Andrew is unintelligent enough to think that he really is superhuman and deserves all these titles and unearned adulation.
Was Andrew wittingly or unwittingly cultivated as an agent of influence? We may never know.
The former head of the public accounts committee Sir Chris Bryant said that the prince is a disgrace. His financial information is not open to the public.
Andrew Lownie is perhaps the most distinguished royal biographer. Dr. Lownie says that the prince’s financial skullduggery is such that were he not royal he would be in prison.