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Court documents have shown that a senior aide to Prince Andrew told an alleged Chinese spy that the Duke’s Newsnight interview was “ill advised”. Dominic Hampshire expressed gratitude to the businessman, Yang Tengbo, for standing by the duke in the months after he had sought to explain his friendship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Yang was in a position of trust with the prince and had attended his 60th birthday dinner. Hampshire said “numerous people” had shunned the prince in the wake of the interview, but that Yang remained loyal. He also authorised Mr Yang to represent Prince Andrew in China in relation to the Eurasia Fund, but police found material on Mr Yang’s phone that led Home Secretary Suella Braverman to ban him from the UK in 2023. It was believed that Mr Yang could be part of a Chinese Communist Party “elite capture” operation to exert influence on the prince. Mr Yang has denied wrongdoing.
The email conversation between Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein came to light in a separate court case involving the Financial Conduct Authority and banker Jes Staley. Epstein emailed Prince Andrew in 2010 to introduce him to Staley, writing: “If you can find time to show jes around with vera that would be fun… he told me he ran into you tonight.” The royal responds by asking who Vera is, and Epstein says: “My future ex-wife, I know Jes and she would love to see home”. A dinner seems then to have been arranged. Prince Andrew met Epstein in 1999, with the financier attending parties on royal estates between 2000 and 2006. Epstein was later convicted of procuring a minor for prostitution in the US in 2008 and was arrested on charges of the sex trafficking of minors in 2019.
In November 2019, Prince Andrew gave an infamous Newsnight interview to Emily Maitlis in which he was questioned over his relationship with Epstein and denied assaulting Virginia Giuffre. Following the interview, he stepped down from royal duties. Hampshire’s letter to Mr Yang on official Buckingham Palace notepaper described the interview as “hugely ill-advised and unsuccessful”. The letter said that “we have found a way to carefully remove those people who we don’t completely trust” and continued with thanks to Mr Yang for his loyalty and support. A court rejected Mr Yang’s appeal against being banned from the UKÂ after an intelligence assessment that he could be secretly working for the Chinese state.
Experts warn that “elite capture” is a well-documented tactic used by the Chinese state to exert influence on people at the top of British life such as politicians, academics and business leaders. The disclosure of Mr Yang’s relationship with the prince comes amid rising concerns about China’s increasing global influence. Critics have said that countries must do more to combat Chinese influence tactics, including supporting independent research and countering the spread of misinformation
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