How did Yang Tengbo become close confidant of Prince Andrew?
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Chinese businessman managed to penetrate the heart of the British establishment. How did a junior Chinese civil servant who arrived in Britain to do a master’s degree at York University end up as such a close confidant of the Duke of York that he was described as “the very top of the tree” by the prince’s adviser?.
Yang Tengbo, 50, also known as Christopher Yang, was able to move in the highest circles of the British establishment. He was invited to Prince Andrew’s 60th birthday party at Royal Lodge, in Windsor, joined visits to St James’s Palace and Windsor Castle, attended a Chinese new year celebration at Downing Street with David Cameron and was pictured in black tie alongside Theresa May and her husband, Philip.
Yang was the chair of Hampton Group, a strategic advisory group that said it could advise UK companies on their affairs in China, with offices behind the Ritz hotel in London’s Mayfair. He was also a senior member of the committee of Pitch@Palace in China, the duke’s Dragons’ Den-style initiative, which offered opportunities for entrepreneurs to meet investors.
Yang was filmed for a Chinese television documentary in which he showed photographs of himself alongside Cameron and May, displayed prominently on his desk. He appears to have held senior positions in UK-China business groups, was described as the executive chair of the China Business Council in the UK, and was an honorary member of a Sino-British business association, the 48 Group Club, which had a number of prominent UK figures as members.
