Revealed: How Prince Andrew and the ‘spy chief’ at the heart of China scandal met at least three times… as Starmer is rebuked by the MI5 boss over the collapsed case

Prince Andrew met the alleged ‘spymaster’ at the heart of the collapsed China spy case at least three times, it emerged on Thursday night.

The Duke of York became embroiled in the scandal engulfing the Government as pictures showed him grinning for the camera and shaking hands with the top Beijing official said to have helped mastermind the Westminster espionage plot.

Andrew, already mired in controversy over his friendship with another alleged Beijing spy, forged links with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) mandarin Cai Qi, the pair posing as they celebrated ‘jointly building a golden era in China-UK relations’.

Prosecutors now believe Mr Cai was presiding over a massive intelligence gathering operation to steal British secrets, overseeing the alleged activities of parliamentary researcher Christopher Cash and China-based English teacher Christopher Berry.

Both men have denied any wrong-doing and the prosecution against them was dropped on the eve of trial last month after the Government refused to label China an ‘enemy’.

According to the Foreign Affairs Office of the Beijing municipal government, Andrew met Mr Cai, one of the most senior members of the CCP and a close ally of president Xi Jinping, when the duke was the UK’s trade envoy.

The first was in May 2018 during a five-day goodwill visit to the UK led by a Chinese Communist Party delegation. Mr Cai was also photographed at the time meeting London Mayor Sadiq Khan, Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Jeremy Corbyn, who was Labour leader at the time.

The prince and Mr Cai greeted each other again the following month, in June 2018, when Andrew stopped in Beijing during a visit to China.

Andrew, already mired in controversy over his friendship with another alleged Beijing spy, forged links with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) mandarin Mr Cai 

Ten months after that, in April 2019, the pair were reunited in China again. Mr Cai hailed the duke’s return visit as ‘jointly building a Golden Era in China-UK relations’ which had ‘become a consensus among our two governments and peoples’.

In a gushing reply, according to the Foreign Affairs Office, Andrew praised Beijing’s ‘obvious advantages in innovation and entrepreneurship’, and said was he was ‘willing to work with Beijing’ to ‘explore more areas of cooperation’.

It comes as:

– The head of MI5 issued a veiled rebuke to Sir Keir Starmer over the case collapse on Thursday, insisting: ‘I will never back off from confronting threats to the UK’.

– Pressure was building on the Director of Public Prosecutions on Thursday to explain why the case was dropped despite alleged bombshell evidence against the accused.

– Labour shelved a decision on whether to approve China’s new ‘super-embassy’ in central London hours before Boris Johnson’s former advisor Dominic Cummings claimed that intelligence services had told him ‘explicitly’ that Beijing was trying to build a ‘spy centre’ there.

– MI5 revealed it had thwarted a Chinese plot to attack Britain’s national security only last week.

– Beijing broke its silence over the case, denouncing ‘British politicians’ attempts to smear and defame China’.

Head of MI5 Sir Ken McCallum, pictured on Thursday, issued a veiled rebuke to Sir Keir Starmer over the case collapse, insisting: ‘I will never back off from confronting threats to the UK’

Labour shelved a decision on whether to approve China’s new ‘super-embassy’ in London hours before Boris Johnson’s former advisor Dominic Cummings, pictured, claimed intelligence services had told him ‘explicitly’ Beijing was trying to build a ‘spy centre’ there 

This is the latest humiliation for Prince Andrew who is already a royal pariah after being forced to step back from palace duties following the fallout from the Jeffrey Epstein paedophile scandal.

The disgraced duke has long courted influential businessmen. But when it came to the Chinese, he was said to be in ‘a desperate situation and will grab onto anything’, court papers revealed last year as his links to another alleged spy, Yang Tengbo, were revealed.

Those claims emerged as MI5 banished Mr Yang, a ‘close confidant’ of the duke, from Britain on security grounds.

It sent shockwaves through the government and royal palaces, with it emerging that the supposed spook, who denies any wrong-doing, had become so close to the British Establishment that he was authorised to act on the duke’s behalf to seek investors in China, a secret hearing was told.

Now Andrew has been dragged into yet another scandal.

Both Mr Berry and Mr Cash were arrested at their homes in March 2023 and charged under the Official Secrets Act for passing details to China which was ‘prejudicial to the safety and interests’ of the UK and was ‘directly or indirectly, useful to an enemy’.

Mr Cash, formerly part of parliament’s China Research Group,, allegedly passed sensitive information to Mr Berry in China, who in turn sent 34 ‘reports’ to an individual identified as a Chinese ‘intelligence agent’ – who was said to have then sent the reports to Mr Cai, the fifth-ranking member of the ruling Politburo.

The Prime Minister faces a crisis as the political row grows ever more furious with MPs blaming him for the collapse of the trial as Labour look to forge stronger stronger economic relations with Beijing to revive a flagging economy.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, pictured at PMQs on Wednesday, faces a crisis as the political row grows ever more furious with MPs blaming him for the collapse of the trial 

Beijing denounced ‘British politicians’ attempts to smear and defame China’ on Thursday night.

The Chinese embassy in London warned the UK government that it should ‘stop undermining China-UK relations’ after Sir Keir released witness statements from his deputy national security adviser in the high-profile case.

An Embassy spokesperson: ‘We have emphasised from the outset that the allegation about China instructing the relevant British individuals to ‘steal British intelligence’ is pure fabrication and malicious slander, which we firmly reject.

‘The so-called ‘witness statements’ released after the CPS dropped the case are rife with unfounded accusations against China. They are nothing but sheer fabrications made out of thin air. We strongly condemn such acts.

‘China never interferes in other countries’ internal affairs and always acts in an open and aboveboard manner. As a Chinese saying goes, ‘While the superior man is at ease with himself, the inferior man is always anxious.’ The attempt by some British politicians to smear China is doomed to fail.’

The duke has always denied any wrongdoing.