Chinese 'spy' Yang Tengbo linked to Conservative donor who had sensitive Ministry of Defence role
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A business associate of an alleged Chinese spy is a major Tory donor who was handed key roles at Government departments, including the Ministry of Defence by the last Conservative government. Former racing tycoon Sir Ron Dennis is the sole director of an investment firm he jointly owns with Yang Tengbo. Yang is the alleged spy barred from the UK on national security grounds after becoming a close confidant of Prince Andrew. He insists the allegations against him are “entirely untrue”.
50-year-old Yang became co-owner with Sir Ron in May 2017 of Coeus International Limited, a fund management firm founded by Dennis two years earlier. This was shortly after Dennis became Co-Chair of the Defence Innovation Advisory Panel for the Ministry of Defence. This panel was set up to “challenge” the MoD on how it is adapting to the changing threats, including cyber, from countries like China.
Rheian Davies, Good Law Project’s legal director, said: “The proximity of this alleged spy to a Tory government insider who likely had access to sensitive information, is a case in point of how the rich and powerful in our country may leave themselves and our political system exposed to potentially malign influence to the detriment of us all.”.
Dennis went on to be appointed non-executive director of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology for a year from 2023 to 2024. He was in this role when the Intelligence and Security Committee published a bombshell report on China, which found the Far East state “targets the UK and its interests prolifically and aggressively”.
