A Fife businessman has longstanding links to an alleged Chinese spy banned from the UK, The Courier can reveal.
Pittenweem resident Alistair Michie is co-director of a UK-China relations company with Yang Tengbo – the man banned from the UK over national security concerns.
Since 2021 Mr Michie has been a director of the UK-China business leaders confederation.
His co-director Mr Yang was identified on Monday after a judge ruled his anonymity should be removed.
Last week he lost an appeal over a decision to bar him from entering the UK on national security grounds.
Until now he was only known publicly as “H6” after a court imposed an anonymity order amid concern over his links to Prince Andrew.
The 50-year-old is said to have become a “close” confidant of the prince and has been pictured with senior politicians including Lord David Cameron and Baroness Theresa May.
Mr Yang and Mr Michie were previously pictured with Prince Andrew at a Windsor Castle event.
Mr Justice Bourne, Judge Stephen Smith and Sir Stewart Eldon ruled that then-home secretary Suella Braverman was “entitled to conclude that the applicant represented a risk to the national security of the United Kingdom” and make the decision to exclude.
The hearing was told Mr Yang was linked to China’s united front work department, which gathers intelligence on influential overseas nationals.
In a report last year, Westminster’s intelligence security committee said this department had “penetrated every sector of the UK economy, spying, stealing intellectual property, influencing and shaping our institutions”.
In a statement, Mr Yang – who described himself as a self-made entrepreneur – denied any wrongdoing.
‘I have done nothing wrong’
He said: “I have done nothing wrong or unlawful and the concerns raised by the Home Office against me are ill-founded. The widespread description of me as a ‘spy’ is entirely untrue.”
He claimed he was a victim of a “political climate” which had seen a rise in tensions between London and Beijing.
Prince Andrew has said he ceased all contact with the alleged spy.
In a video shared by the Chinese Embassy in October, Mr Michie, described as a diplomacy expert, explained his connection with China dates back 30 years.
Fife businessman shares links to China in video filmed in Pittenweem
Filmed in Pittenweem, Mr Michie details his first trip to the country in 1993 and his work as chairman of the Center for China and Globalization.
In 2021, Chinese ambassador Zheng Zeguang awarded Mr Michie with a friendship award on behalf the country’s government.
An online biography states that in December 2012, Mr Michie became the first British national to be invited to brief the newly appointed Chinese premier, Xi Jinping.
The Courier attempted to contact Mr Michie by phone and at his home address but was told he was unavailable.
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