An alleged Chinese spy received an award at a prize-giving ceremony hosted at Churchill College in 2019.

An invitation shared by the Cambridge Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA-CAM) shows that Yang Tengbo, who was banned from entering the UK in 2023 , attendance of the “Most Achieved Chinese Awards” (MACA), or the “Ninth Chinese People’s List” awards at Churchill College, on 25 October 2019.

An article published by the event organisers says that Tengbo received a prize for “outstanding achievement” at the ceremony, of which CSSA-CAM a student group which supports Chinese academics, students, and residents in Cambridge, was named a “co-organiser”.

In December, the businessman was identified as the alleged Chinese spy, previously known only as “H6,” whose appeal over the Home Office’s decision to ban him from entering the UK had been rejected. No allegations had been made against Tengbo at the time of the ceremony. Tengbo denies all allegations against him.

According to the invitation shared by CSSA-CAM, the ceremony at Churchill was attended by a variety of public figures, including playwright Yan Geling, then-President of London Chinatown Chinese Association Deng Zhuting, billionaire Cheng Ye, and late calligrapher Zhao Yizhou. 

Also in attendance was late businesswoman Barbara Judge, then the widow of Paul Judge, a major benefactor of the Cambridge Judge Business School.

The Chinese People’s List website states that Tengbo won the “Chinese People’s List’s Outstanding Achievement Award”. In a photograph of the event, this appears to be presented to him by Judge, next to whom he can be seen sitting in the audience in a separate photo. Both Tengbo and Judge were directors of clothing company B&H Enterprise at the time, according to Companies House.

There is no indication that CSSA-CAM or any of the other individuals or organisations mentioned in this article were aware of, or complicit in, any wrongdoing. 

Various awards were reportedly received by several other public figures, such as screenwriter Yan Geling, and artists Ding Shaoguang and Lv Junjie.

London Mayor-backed growth agency London & Partners was listed on a post seemingly shared by the MACA organisers as having provided “support” to the ceremony.

A then-employee of the agency, Laura Xu, was named as a prize-giver at the event: a fact which L&P has confirmed to Varsity. A spokesperson for L&P explained that her attendance was “part of business as usual networking activity undertaken by our inward investment managers”, and that the agency had not supported the event in an official capacity.

L&P says that Xu, who was previously an Account Manager at Huawei Technologies and according to her LinkedIn is currently the Global Head of Public Affairs at OPPO, also hosted a meeting “for some members” of the MACA delegation. The meeting, which sought to “promote London as a business destination,” took place at the L&P offices the week after the Churchill event.

The spokesperson added that L&P had not supported the event in any capacity “other than one of our employees being an attendee and presenter of an award at the event,” and that the agency is not aware of any “official agreement” that would have permitted L&P to be named as a supporter of the event on any social media advertising.

L&P is not aware of more than one employee having attended the event, and says it has not supported any other events organised by the Chinese People’s List or MACA.

Churchill College told Varsity that the event was booked by a third party through the College’s commercial conferencing business. A spokesperson explained: “External events use the College as a venue but are not administered or run by the College.”

The spokesperson said that neither MACA or the Chinese People’s List have used Churchill as a venue for any other events, and that CSSA-CAM was not involved in the reservation of Churchill as a venue for the event. “All external bookings go through the College’s external bookings team”, they added.

According to the event website, MACA has taken place in a different country each year since 2011.

According to the BBC, UK authorities have alleged that Tengbo was “frequently connected to officials connected with the Chinese state” and had “sometimes deliberately obscured his links” to the Chinese government, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and the United Front Work Department (UFWD). While a tribunal ruled that there was not an “abundance” of evidence against Tengbo, it ruled that it was “sufficient” to justify MI5’s consideration of Tengbo as a security risk.

Tengbo, founder of consultancy firm Hampton Group International and founder-partner of the Chinese branch of Prince Andrew’s entrepreneurial scheme Pitch@Palace, has firmly denied the allegations. He has stated that he has no links to anyone involved in Chinese politics, has never been a member of the CCP, and has never worked on behalf of the UFWD.

MACA and CSSA-CAM were contacted for comment.