Yang rose to become the head of the Chinese arm of Prince Andrew’s entrepreneur business scheme Pitch@Palace, alongside his own business Hampton Group, which had contracts with China’s state broadcaster. Yang was said to have been to Buckingham Palace, the King’s most prestigious residence, on at least two occasions as a guest of the prince.
“Useful idiot”
Andrew was forced to pull out from his family’s Christmas celebrations, British newspapers reported on Sunday, amid public anger over his role in a second major scandal in five years. He was labeled as “one of Beijing’s so-called ‘useful idiots’” by former Conservative MP Bob Seely, as lawmakers in the House of Commons held a fiery debate over how, as former Tory Leader Iain Duncan Smith put it, “someone who was known to the security services was allowed to get so close to a member of the royal family.”
Duncan Smith told his fellow MPs the alleged spy was not a “lone wolf” but one of 40,000 members of the United Front Works Department, an arm of the Chinese Communist Party which seeks to wield influence abroad.
Sari Arho Havrén, a specialist in China’s foreign relations at the RUSI think tank, told POLITICO: “A close relationship with Prince Andrew could serve multiple purposes — ‘elite capture’ for one. These are influential people who can speak positively on behalf of the Chinese government, potentially influence the royal family from within, and thus act as a Beijing-friendly power base within the U.K.
“A close relationship with Prince Andrew can also open doors to other meaningful contacts and people where a close relationship to a member of the royal family works as a gateway and guarantee of reliability.
“And here, Yang was quite successful, as he did gain access to senior politicians, for instance former prime ministers.”
