King Charles at risk in Chinese spy crisis

The outing of the decade-long friendship involving an alleged Chinese spy threatens to engulf Buckingham Palace.

Well, well, well. Leave it to Prince Andrew, the Duke of York to spoil King Charles’ Christmas and to dump a steaming fresh crisis on Buckingham Palace’s doorstep, right as the world is trying to wind down and find a decent mince pie left on supermarket shelves.

It’s hard to know where to start, so let’s begin with the fact it has now been revealed that the duke was friends with an alleged Chinese spy, known only as H6, for 10 years, inviting him into Buckingham Palace, twice, along with Windsor Castle and St James’s Palace.

Also, MI5 is now investigating Chinese investment in one of Andrew’s business ventures.

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An official statement from Andrew said that he and H6 met “through official channels” and that he had “ceased all contact” with H6 after “concerns were raised”.

This fresh mucky mess has also thrown up the truly gobsmacking detail that the Palace has no real idea where Andrew’s money comes from. Even now, despite having been cut off by King Charles, they have no definitive way of knowing where the 64-year-old is finding the millions to fund his lavish lifestyle, including for the upkeep on his grand estate, Royal Lodge and for his private security.

Britain's Prince Andrew, Duke of York, was close with a Chinese spy, it has been revealed, renewing scrutiny of King Charles' disgraced brother. Picture: John Thys/AFP

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This whole fiasco broke on Friday when it was revealed that H6, who has now been banned from the UK, was a “close confidant” of the King’s brother. Such was their decade-long connection that the duke appointed H6 as a “a trusted business adviser,” per the Daily Mail, and was “told he could act on the Duke’s behalf when dealing with potential investors in China,” the Telegraph reports.

More was to come out yet, like that Andrew had invited H6 to events at a series of royal properties and that H6 was one of the “little more than a dozen guests” invited to Andrew’s 60th birthday party in 2020.

It was revealed over the weekend that the UK’s domestic security service, MI5, is investigating money given to Andrew’s now shuttered pitch@palace venture from Chinese sources.

(While the British arm of pitch@palace, a sort of Shark Tank of sorts he founded in 2014, was run as a not-for-profit, the overseas arm were money-makers.)

The duke undertook a taxpayer-funded trip to the country in 2010 in his former role as a British trade ambassador.

While the UK’s spooks are digging away, it has also emerged that Crown Inc is as in the dark as everyone else over where Andrew gets his money from. Sources have told the Telegraph that the Palace has “no power, authority or legal right” to see Andrew’s books.

Earlier this year, Charles announced he would no longer foot the bill for the duke’s private security, once and for all yanking Andrew off the royal cash teet. The duke has not received a penny from the official Sovereign Grant since his ignominious fall-from-grace and polite conversation in 2019.

King Charles, left, with Prince Andrew, right, and the Queen’s mother at Royal Lodge, Windsor, in 1975. Picture: Camera Press Agency

In November, Andrew triumphed in the so-called ‘Siege of Royal Lodge’ after the King had spent nearly two years trying to oust him out of the 30-room property that he leases from the Crown Estate. Somehow the father-of-two had found the cash to pay the what must be huge bill for the property’s upkeep, leaving Charles with no legal leg to stand on to get him out.

The Duke of York reportedly gave Sir Michael Stevens, keeper of the privy purse, “verbal assurances” that his funds come from a “legitimate source”.

So what the hell might these totally-above-board fonts of moolah be? Where is he getting the millions needed annually to pay for his bodyguards and to keep his home, the historic and vast Royal Lodge, from crumbling?

Estimates for his round-the-clock protection alone have been put at more than $5 million annually while the only income that Andrew officially receives is his approximately $40,000-a-year naval pension.

There are also renewed questions over whether the Duke of York might have privately benefited from any of the trips he undertook as the UK’s official overseas trade ambassador from 2001 to 2011. Even after stepping down as trade envoy, in the year that followed he spent 28 days overseas, visiting Saudi Arabia, Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi.

As the heat on Andrew intensifies, the Palace is flailing about the place as this crisis threatens to engulf Crown Inc. The line of London has seen the Palace attempt — and I’d argue, fail — to wash their hands of it all.

King Charles III reacts as he visits the Christmas market in Battersea Power Station, in London, on December 12, 2024. Picture: Justin Tallis/AFP

Attempts to distance the King from from the Duke of For-F**k’s-Sake-Not-Again’s latest scandal are going about as well as you might think.

One supporter of the King’s has told the Daily Mail’s Rebecca English: “What more can be done? He has been stripped of literally everything he can be.”

Meanwhile, His Majesty is reportedly still umming and hazing about whether to ban his brother from the publicly-viewable parts of royal Christmas and is said to be hoping he will do the honourable thing and voluntarily bow out of the extended royal family lunch on Thursday and the traditional December 25 walk to church.

Is the duke really that potentially egotistical or idiotic or have such brass balls to think he should still be allowed to to take part in all of this? We will see or Charles might have to grow a pair and manage his twit of a sibling.

Call it a bad case of ho-ho-ho-oh-no.

I’m not sure about Santa’s naughty or nice list but bringing this PR debacle down on Buckingham Palace’s head should certainly see the Duke of York get a massive bit of coal in his stocking this year. I’m sure the King would be happy to supply it.

Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and a royal commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.

Originally published as King Charles at risk in Chinese spy crisis