The Duke of York met the alleged “spymaster” at the heart of the collapsed China spy case at least three times, according to reports.
Prince Andrew is pictured shaking hands with the Beijing official Cai Qi who is said to have received sensitive information from two British men.
Cai – a close ally of President Xi Jinping - is accused of helping to mastermind the Westminster espionage plot engulfing the Government.
Disgraced Andrew, already mired in controversy over his friendship with another alleged Beijing spy, forged links with Cai, a senior Chinese Communist Party mandarin.
The pair posed as they celebrated “jointly building a golden era in China-UK relations” and there is no suggestion the royal knew of any claims of wrongdoing.
Prosecutors now believe Cai was presiding over a massive intelligence-gathering operation to steal UK secrets, overseeing the alleged activities of parliamentary researcher Christopher Cash, 30, and English teacher Christopher Berry, 33.
Both men have denied any wrongdoing and the case against them collapsed 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 Cai in May 2018 and April 2019.
In a gushing reply, the FAO said the duke praised Beijing’s “obvious advantages in innovation and entrepreneurship”, and said he was “willing to work with Beijing” to “explore more areas of cooperation”.
This is the latest humiliation for 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.
Court papers last year revealed his links to another alleged spy, Yang Tengbo.
MI5 banished Yang from Britain on security grounds.
Beijing denounced British politicians’ “attempts to smear and defame China”, with a London embassy spokesman saying: “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.”
MI5 director general Sir Ken McCallum warned “Chinese state actors” presented a national security threat to the UK “every day”, with the security services having carried out an operation against a threat from Beijing within the last week.
Asked if he was frustrated by the collapse of the case, he said: “Of course I am frustrated when opportunities to prosecute national security threatening activity are not followed through, for whatever reason.”
In a stark warning about Beijing’s spying activities, he also highlighted attempts by China to carry out “cyber espionage”, “clandestine technology transfer”, efforts to “interfere covertly in UK public life” and the “harassment and intimidation of opponents”, including pro-democracy activists.
It comes as the Government has postponed a decision on whether to grant China permission for a new London “super embassy”, which ex-No10 adviser Dominic Cummings said he was warned would house a “spy centre”.
