On Thursday evening, reports surfaced that Prince Andrew had met with a central figure in the failed China espionage case on at least three occasions.

The Duke of York found himself entangled in the unfolding government scandal, with photographs capturing him exchanging pleasantries with a Chinese official allegedly involved in orchestrating a spy plot targeting Westminster.

Already under scrutiny for his association with another suspected Chinese operative, Andrew cultivated a connection with Cai Qi, a high-ranking member of the Chinese Communist Party. The two were photographed together, symbolically celebrating a “golden era” in relations between China and the UK.

Cai is now believed by prosecutors to have led a significant espionage effort aimed at acquiring British intelligence. This operation purportedly involved parliamentary researcher Christopher Cash and English teacher Christopher Berry, who was based in China.

Both Cash and Berry have maintained their innocence, and the case against them collapsed last month just before it was set to go to trial, largely because the government opted not to officially designate China as an “enemy.”

According to Beijing’s municipal government’s Foreign Affairs Office, Cai, a prominent ally of President Xi Jinping, met with Andrew during his tenure as the UK’s trade envoy.

The first time was in May 2018 during a five-day goodwill visit to the UK led by a CCP delegation. Cai also met London mayor Sadiq Khan, Scotland First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Jeremy Corbyn, who was Labour leader at the time. 

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

Prince Andrew met Cai Qi, the alleged ‘spymaster’ at the heart of the collapsed China spy case, at least three times (pictured: the pair in 2018)

Cai Qi with Prince Andrew in April 2019 in China 

The pair pictured shaking hands on the same day in April 2019 

In April 2019, the pair were reunited in China again. 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 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, insisting: ‘I will never back off from confronting threats to the UK’;

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

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

• Labour delayed a decision on whether to approve China’s new ‘super-embassy’ in central London.

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 

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 

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 on to anything’, court papers revealed last year as his links to another alleged spy, Yang Tengbo, emerged.

Those claims came as MI5 banished Yang, a ‘close confidant’ of the duke, from Britain on security grounds. On Thursday night, Beijing denounced ‘British politicians’ attempts to smear and defame China’. The Chinese embassy in London warned the UK Government that it should ‘stop undermining China-UK relations’.

An embassy spokesman said: ‘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.

‘China never interferes in other countries’ internal affairs and always acts in an open and above-board manner. As a Chinese saying goes, ‘While the superior man is at ease with himself, the inferior man is always anxious’. The attempt… to smear China is doomed to fail.’ Andrew has always denied any wrongdoing.