Yang Tengbo statement in full: Suspected Chinese spy breaks silence after being named at heart of scandal

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An alleged Chinese spy banned from the UK and linked to the Duke of York can now be named as Yang Tengbo, a High Court judge has ruled.

The businessman, who was referred to only as H6, had been the subject of an anonymity order – but was named after the High Court rejected an attempt to keep his identity a secret.

Mr Yang was first excluded from Britain by then-home secretary Suella Braverman in 2023, when the Home Office said he was believed to have carried out “covert and deceptive activity” for the Chinese Communist Party.

His appeal against the ruling last week was dismissed.

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But in a statement issued after the ruling at the Royal Court of Justices, the 50-year-old said he had “done nothing wrong or unlawful”, adding in a statement that the “widespread description of me as a ‘spy’ is entirely untrue”.

Yang Tengo’s statement reads:

“Due to the high level of speculation and misreporting in the media and elsewhere, I have asked my legal team to disclose my identity. I have done nothing wrong or unlawful and the concerns raised by the Home Office against me are ill-founded. The widespread description of me as a ‘spy’ is entirely untrue.

“This is why I applied for a review of the Home Office decision in the first place, and why I am seeking permission to appeal the SIAC decision. It is also why an order extending my anonymity up to the point of determination of the appeal process was granted.

“I have been excluded from seeing most of the evidence that was used against me under a process which is widely acknowledged by SIAC practitioners as inherently unfair: decisions are made based on secret evidence and closed proceedings, which has been described as “taking blind shots at a hidden target”.

“On their own fact finding, even the three judges in this case concluded that there was ‘not an abundance of evidence’ against me, their decision was ‘finely balanced’, and there could be an ‘innocent explanation’ for my activities. This has not been reported in the media.

“The political climate has changed, and unfortunately, I have fallen victim to this. When relations are good, and Chinese investment is sought, I am welcome in the UK. When relations sour, an anti-China stance is taken, and I am excluded.

“I am an independent self-made entrepreneur and I have always aimed to foster partnerships and build bridges between East and West. I have dedicated my professional life in the UK to building links between British and Chinese businesses. My activities have played a part in bringing hundreds of millions of pounds of investment into the UK.

“I built my private life in the UK over two decades and love the country as my second home. I would never do anything to harm the interests of the UK.”