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prince andrew met a senior Beijing official in the center of China espionage scandal According to reports, at least three times.
Duke of York meetings With Cai Qi in 2018 and 2019, currently the first-ranking member of the Secretariat Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and indeed chief of staff To Xi Jinping,
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) dropped charges against suspected spies Christopher Berry and Christopher Cash last month, citing a lack of evidence; Both have denied any wrongdoing.
Before the charges were dropped, Mr Cai was suspected of being the recipient of sensitive information allegedly given to China by two British citizens who were accused of spying for Beijing.
Prince Andrew met with senior CCP official at least three times Wirein both London and Beijing during the period when Mr. Berry and Mr. Cash were allegedly recruited for espionage.
Chinese state media reports suggest the duke was among British officials who met with Mr Cai and a Beijing delegation in May 2018, along with the then Labor leader. jeremy corbynFormer Scottish First Minister Nicola SturgeonFormer Cabinet Office Minister david lidingtonand mayor of london Sadiq Khan,
British officials present said that amid talk of a golden age of British-Chinese relations, there was huge potential for cooperation between the two countries.
A few weeks later, Prince Andrew traveled to China to launch a boot camp for his Pitch@Palace business initiative at Peking University and expressed a desire to help Chinese businesses gain access to the global market, as state media reported at the time. There was reportedly a meeting between the Duke and Mr Cai, as well as other senior CCP members, in 2018, where they expressed their hope to boost Sino-British cooperation in technology. Wire,
Duke returned to China in April 2019, where he brought Pitch@Palace to Shenzhen in South China’s Guangdong province. He reportedly met Mr. Cai again, Wire The pair said “jointly building a ‘golden era’ in China-UK relations has become a consensus between the two governments,” the report said.
This is not the first time that the Prince’s relations with China have attracted attention, as he had to face criticism for it His friendship with alleged spy Yang Tengbo In December. Mr Yang was detained in 2021 under the Anti-Terrorism and Border Security Act, where correspondence was found on his digital devices suggesting he was working for the United Front Work Department – a shadowy branch of the People’s Liberation Army. Chinese Communist Party – Due to which he was banned from UK.
Mr. Yang appealed to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission, which rejected his appeal, making his case public. The judgment cited evidence provided by the Home Office alleging that Mr Yang was a close confidant of the Prince, acting on his behalf with investors in China.
The revelations about the Duke’s ties to China come as pressure grows on the Government and the CPS to explain why the Chinese spying case collapsed after MI5 chief Sir Ken McCallum said he was “disappointed” by the move.
MPs have demanded that CPS chief Stephen Parkinson provide a “full explanation for withdrawing the charges”, which he attributed to insufficient evidence that China was a threat to Britain at the time of the alleged crimes.
Meanwhile, Downing Street has responded to questions as to why the Prime Minister did not intervene on the matter. A spokesman for Sir Keir Starmer said: “The suggestion that the Prime Minister should have stepped in at this point is patently absurd.
“If he had to do so he would be interfering in a matter relating to the previous government, previous policy, previous law.”
A Chinese embassy spokesperson said the published witness statements were: “full of baseless accusations against China”.
Independent The Duke of York has been contacted for comment.