Prince Andrew and Chinese official had Royal Lodge meeting after car crash interview

Prince Andrew held a secret meeting with China’s ambassador at the Windsor Royal Lodge just weeks after his disastrous Newsnight interview, newly released court documents have revealed.

In 2019, the Duke of York’s right-hand man, Dominic Hampshire, personally arranged for Ambassador Liu Xiaoming to evade waiting paparazzi outside the royal residence and prevent him from being pictured meeting with the embattled Prince. It emerged in court that Hampshire submitted the ambassadorial vehicle’s number plate in advance to bypass security checks and allow him to slip in unnoticed.

The meeting was arranged to discuss Andrew’s royal-themed tech investment scheme, called Pitch@Palace, which had been launched in China the year before with the help of Tengbo Yang, who has been removed from the UK over allegations that he is a spy for the Chinese Communist Party. It was in the court challenge to then Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s decision to bar Yang that these new details have emerged.

But even Chinese officials were cautious about meeting Prince Andrew after he had disastrously defended his decades-long friendship with infamous billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, it emerged in court. Yang, who was barred from the UK on national security grounds, even admitted that it would be “damaging” for the ambassador to be seen meeting with him.