A senior alleged Chinese spy befriended Prince Andrew and – in the way of Andrew’s unfortunate friendships with the late exploiter and trafficker of young women, Jeffrey Epstein and accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell – was invited to palace events. Worse, he was told he could represent the prince when dealing with prospective investors. Got to hand it to Andrew: he is one of the UK’s most productive source of plots for TV dramas.
While the Duke could not have known if his acquaintance had intense links to China’s deep state, the story lays bare how an open society, intent on making money out of the relationship with the massive Chinese market, can become so complacent that this pratfall could occur.
The intelligence services and a police operation to gather evidence had barred the alleged spy from entering the country in 2021. Our own closed justice system in such matters did not reveal the saga. It was the decision by the man accused to take his case to an immigration appeal which has brought this into the public domain.
This now leaves the Labour government, keen to warm up relations with China after much swithering in the Tory years, in a difficult spot. The Cameron/Osborne government, like Starmer, sought to boost trust and trade with a full-honours visit by President Xi in 2015. The Chinese President visited Huawei’s UK headquarters as an example of the joys of co-operation, only for the company to since be accused of being a front for Beijing. It was then phased out of supplying the 5G network on cyber-security grounds “as swiftly as possible” and the company deemed a “high risk vendor” to the telecoms infrastructure.
Behind the scenes, the Starmer government has been trying to move the conversation on China to a pragmatic one about supplies for its green technology pivot and attempts to leverage an advantage over Europe’s tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles.
China knows Prince Andrew is the weakest and most gullible royal
Read MoreFrom political targeting to Beijing-backed cyber attacks which affected the Electoral Commission’s infrastructure in 2021-22 to a university sector which has become overly dependent on Chinese students to balance the books, Britain’s desire to be a global entrepot needs a reality check on how it can be abused.
It’s a terrible state of affairs for many Chinese nationals who are simply enjoying a break from the security state back home. But there’s now enough evidence to show that the net here needs to tighten and that openness has been exploited – and will be again as the international security outlook darkens.
But one thing is obvious, naiveté tends to reap humiliation, served in very large portions. Starmer should be aware that in dealings with the realm of Xi, there will always be some bad surprises in store.
Anne McElvoy is executive editor at POLITICO host of the Power Play podcast.
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