Chinese businessman with shut ties to Prince Andrew banned from UK over nationwide safety fears | EUROtoday

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A Chinese businessman described as a “close confidante” of the Duke of York has misplaced an attraction over a choice to bar him from coming into the UK on nationwide safety grounds.

The man, recognized solely as H6, introduced a case to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) after then-home secretary Suella Braverman mentioned he ought to be excluded from the UK in March 2023.

Judges have been advised that in a briefing for the house secretary in July 2023, officers claimed H6 had been ready to generate relationships between distinguished UK figures and senior Chinese officers “that could be leveraged for political interference purposes”.

They additionally mentioned that H6 had downplayed his relationship with the Chinese state, which, mixed together with his relationship with Prince Andrew, represented a risk to nationwide safety.

At a listening to in July, the specialist tribunal heard that the businessman was advised by an adviser to the prince that he may act on the duke’s behalf when coping with potential traders in China, and that H6 had been invited to Andrew’s party in 2020.

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A letter referencing the party from the adviser, Dominic Hampshire, was found on H6’s gadgets when he was stopped at a port in November 2021.

The letter additionally mentioned: “I also hope that it is clear to you where you sit with my principal and indeed his family.

“You should never underestimate the strength of that relationship… Outside of his closest internal confidants, you sit at the very top of a tree that many, many people would like to be on.”

In a ruling on Thursday, Mr Justice Bourne, Judge Stephen Smith and Sir Stewart Eldon, dismissed the problem.

The judges mentioned: “The Secretary of State was entitled to conclude that the applicant represented a risk to the national security of the United Kingdom, and that she was entitled to conclude that his exclusion was justified and proportionate.”

The Home Office confirmed in July 2023 that H6 can be excluded from the UK as he was thought-about to have engaged in “covert and deceptive activity” on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and that he possible posed a risk to nationwide safety.

The now-50-year-old former civil servant introduced authorized motion for a evaluation of the choice, arguing that it was illegal.

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The tribunal in London heard that H6 had mentioned he prevented getting concerned in politics and solely had restricted hyperlinks to the Chinese state.

His attorneys additionally argued that there was proof that it was troublesome for a Chinese nationwide concerned in enterprise to keep away from any contact with the CCP and that materials associated to his relationship with the prince needed to be learn within the context of an advisor writing to somebody who had been loyal to him in troublesome instances.

However, Home Office attorneys argued that H6 had downplayed his hyperlinks to an arm of the CCP and that his relationship with Andrew may very well be used for political interference.

In their 53-page ruling, the judges mentioned that Andrew may have been made “vulnerable” to the misuse of the affect H6 had.

They mentioned: “The applicant won a significant degree, one could say an unusual degree, of trust from a senior member of the Royal Family who was prepared to enter into business activities with him.

“That occurred in a context where, as the contemporaneous documents record, the duke was under considerable pressure and could be expected to value the applicant’s loyal support.

“It is obvious that the pressures on the duke could make him vulnerable to the misuse of that sort of influence.

“That does not mean that the Home Secretary could be expected to exclude from the UK any Chinese businessman who formed a commercial relationship with the duke or with any other member of the Royal Family.”

The three judges mentioned that H6 had loved a personal life within the UK, which had been described because the businessman’s “second home”, including: “He has settled status, a home and extensive business interests in the United Kingdom. He was regarded as a close confidant of the duke.”

The judges continued the house secretary was “rationally entitled to decide” there was a possible to leverage the connection, including H6 was “not candid” about his hyperlinks to the CCP.

They concluded: “In our judgment it was open to the SSHD to take a reasonably precautionary approach to the risk, and to take action rationally aimed at neutralising it so far as possible.

“Whilst excluding the applicant would not necessarily halt his activities, it would significantly hinder them.

“Cultivating relationships with prominent UK individuals would logically be much more difficult if no meetings could take place in the UK.”