What is Going on With the Andrew/Chinese Spy Story?
Andrew is skipping both Sandringham Christmas and tomorrow's Christmas luncheon.
Good morning! Can you believe one week from today is Christmas Day? It is crazy how quickly time has flown. If you follow royal news, you saw in the papers last week that Prince Andrew has decided not to attend Christmas at Sandringham, including the family’s walk to St. Mary Magdalene’s for the Christmas morning service.
Because Christmas is technically a private occasion, which traditionally the public are allowed to view, Andrew has been able to continue to join his family for the public Christmas walk (and Easter, for that matter), despite his retreat from public life in the wake of the Epstein-friendship scandal. He has chosen to forego the family Christmas this year because of another dubious, at best, entanglement.
The dust up centers on an influential Chinese businessman named Yang Tengbo (who goes by Christopher Yang). Yang does a great deal of business in the United Kingdom, and he promotes Chinese-UK relations. His position has allowed him to rub elbows with the rich and famous in the U.K. In 2014, Yang “arranged the first UK-China Business Leaders Summit, where he was photographed with George Osborne, then the chancellor.” He has also been pictured with multiple members of the U.K. government, including Theresa May.
Recently, however, Yang has been accused of spying for the Chinese and has now been banned him from the U.K. According to the Guardian, Yang was accused of “being a member of the united front work department, the arm of the Chinese Communist party (CCP) responsible for overseas influence. [Yang] denies being a Chinese spy.”
