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The Chinese ambassador was secretly ushered into Windsor’s Royal Lodge for a business meeting with Prince Andrew just weeks after his disastrous BBC Newsnight interview, court documents reveal.
Andrew’s closest aide, Dominic Hampshire, ensured that then-ambassador Liu Xiaoming was able to bypass certain security measures on the Windsor estate by submitting the licence plate number of his vehicle in advance so he could drive through the main gates and avoid waiting paparazzi.
Xiaoming was hoping to discuss Pitch@Palace, the duke’s Dragons Den-style investment vehicle which had launched in China the previous year with the help of Tengbo Yang, who was recently named in court documents as an alleged spy acting on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party [CCP].
Documents released as part of an appeal by Yang against a decision to bar him from the country on national security grounds show that even he acknowledged it would be ‘damaging’ for the ambassador to be seen meeting Andrew so soon after his interview with Emily Maitlis in which he discussed his relationship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Yang led Andrew’s Pitch@Palace scheme in China and was authorised to conduct business deals in the country on the duke’s behalf.
He appealed to the Special Immigration Appeals Tribunal over the Home Office’s decision to ban him from entering Britain but it was rejected. Hundreds of pages central to his case were released last week.
Among them were details of the ambassador’s visit to discuss the Pitch project, thought to have been in December 2019.
In a witness statement, Yang said that Xiaoming ‘was an early supporter of Pitch and wanted to know what was going on with the Duke and Pitch after the Maitlis interview given there was huge negativity in the Chinese media’.
Court documents have revealed the Chinese ambassador was secretly ushered into Windsor’s Royal Lodge for a business meeting with Prince Andrew just weeks after his disastrous BBC Newsnight interview
In a witness statement, Tengbo Yang said that Liu Xiaoming ‘was an early supporter of Pitch and wanted to know what was going on with the Duke (pictured) and Pitch after the Maitlis interview
It was decided the ambassador should visit Andrew directly so he could ‘report back to China about whether there was still a commitment to continue Pitch in China’.
He added: ‘At the time, there was a 24/7 news presence around the Royal Lodge. Having any ambassador visiting the duke would have been in the news, but particularly a Chinese ambassador.’
He added that his ‘reputation in China was so bad at the time’.
The documents indicate that Pitch was set up as a money-making venture for the duke in China with Yang claiming that ‘the duke needed money at the time, and saw the relationships with Chia [sic] through Pitch as one possible source of funding’.
He said he understood that Andrew drew a salary from Pitch and also described how he and three other investors had provided the scheme with an initial cash injection when it launched in China to the tune of around £50,000 each.
It is understood Andrew was also entitled to receive a two per cent share of any Pitch investment deal for three years.
The documents also indicate that Xiaming, who held his post as President Xi Jinping’s ambassador to the UK between 2010 and 2020, was under the impression that the late Queen approved of her son’s efforts to enhance business relationships with China.
Documents show Andrew was planning to raise $3billion of international financing for a proposed ‘Eurasia Fund’ by using the royal family’s reputation in countries such as China, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain.
Andrew’s closest aide, Dominic Hampshire, ensured that then-ambassador Liu Xiaoming was able to bypass certain security measures on the Windsor estate (pictured)
Prince Andrew was pictured on a drive around Windsor Castle on Monday – seemingly taking in the sunny February weather
A 2021 document claimed that both the monarchy and government ‘are expected to welcome’ the Eurasia Fund and ‘support its positive role.’
In his statement as part of his case, Yang said that he had even been ‘welcomed into Downing Street’ during the so-called ‘golden era’ of UK-China relations established under David Cameron.
He has been pictured alongside both Cameron and former Prime Minister Theresa May.
In a statement issued ahead of the release of the documents last week, Yang denied the spying allegations and said ‘entrepreneurial success should be encouraged and celebrated, not punished’.
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