Chinese spy case tipping point for Charles and William over ‘the Andrew problem’
The Prince of Wales orchestrated the dramatic move to strip Prince Andrew of royal privileges amid revelations about meetings with a suspected Chinese spy and lies about Jeffrey Epstein.
Prince William began the moves to force disgraced Prince Andrew to relinquish the use of all his royal titles as his father, King Charles, was meeting Aboriginal elders to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the handover of Uluru in Australia House last Thursday.
Behind the scenes, the Prince of Wales was dealing with “the Andrew problem”.
Already banished from being a working royal over his links with Jeffrey Epstein, Andrew was again enmeshed in dramas from multiple angles.
A tipping point for the King and his heir, it is believed, were new revelations that broke on Thursday that Andrew’s judgment was so off centre that he could be drawn into the failed Chinese spying court case scandal enveloping Westminster.
Andrew was already known to have a friendship with Yang Tengbo, the suspected Chinese spy who infiltrated the British establishment, but it was now revealed Andrew had held at least three meetings with Cai Qi, a close associate of Xi Jinping and the top ranking official involved in the spying drama.
William, who doesn’t have the closest relationship with his uncle, was incensed that Andrew had introduced Cai into the very heart of the royal family, hosting him for a lunch in Buckingham Palace in 2018.
As has been the case since Charles’s cancer diagnosis, major family decisions are being made in close consultation with William, 43, who wants his reign to be scandal-free. He has been hard-nosed about the deteriorating relationship with his brother, Prince Harry, refusing to engage with him or his wife, Meghan, lest any part of the conversation is leaked to the wider world.
William and his wife, Princess Catherine, who have been keeping their own court and want a monarchy that will be forward looking and more popular, have been distancing themselves well away from the Yorks. William had already ensured Andrew would not attend the family walk on Christmas Day.
In the latest imbroglio surrounding Andrew, apart from personal considerations, William quickly realised the constitutional difficulties between crown and state if Andrew, 65, was seen to be implicated in a matter that has been undermining the Starmer government.
Two British men, Christopher Cash and Christopher Berry, have denied charges of spying for the Chinese. Court documents revealed information was provided by Cash, who was a government researcher and handed to Berry, which went to an intermediary called Alex and then provided to Cai Qi.
The case was dropped because the government’s deputy national security adviser didn’t provide enough information about China being a security risk for the crown prosecutor to proceed, causing a political uproar.
Apart from the matters of state, Andrew’s association with Epstein continued to publicly tarnish the royal family’s reputation. Emails to have surfaced in the past fortnight show Andrew and his former wife Sarah, who was being bankrolled by Epstein, publicly lied about their involvement with the American sex offender.
A month after publicly denouncing Epstein, Sarah sent him a grovelling email calling him her “steadfast, generous and supreme friend” and “humbly apologised” to him for publicly criticising him.
Andrew had been also conversing with Epstein two months after he had claimed to have cut all ties in December 2010.
In February 2011, Andrew wrote to Epstein saying “Keep in close touch and we’ll play some more soon”. Then when the now infamous picture of himself with his arm around his accuser Virginia Giuffre was published, Andrew contacted Epstein saying they were “in this together”.
Palace aides feared further damage when Giuffre’s posthumous book, Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice, is released this week.
So while Charles, 76, was being feted by the Anangu people, an email was being sent to Andrew’s residence at Royal Lodge and then followed by a phone call from Andrew to Charles.
None of the key protagonists met in person, with all discussions between Charles and William and Charles and Andrew conducted by phone on Thursday and Friday. Charles is believed to have also spoken to his sister, Princess Anne, and younger brother, Prince Edward, about the matter.
Charles agreed to Andrew releasing the statement that he would stop using his Duke of York title and honours, such as the Order of the Garter.
The Buckingham Palace announcement, headed as a “Statement by Prince Andrew”, said he would “now go a step further” and stop using his title and honours. Palace aides then stressed that Andrew had not been stripped of the titles, but rather they had been put into abeyance and Andrew would not use them. To publicly renounce the titles, the King would have to have the agreement of parliament, drawing out the controversy. That prolonging of the agony is something William does not want.
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