One month today, my book 'All That Glistens: Chinese Party-State Influence in Britain' is published with @hurstpublishers.bsky.social. I’m including some of the quotes from the back cover. More info available via the link. www.hurstpublishers.com/book/all-tha...

3/3 More feedback:

“‘A stylish narrative on the rise and fall of Chinese Communist Party political reach in Britain over a decade”

2/3 More feedback:

“Thorley’s analysis, that the UK is a corrupt enabler of authoritarian politics makes original and disturbing reading”

1/3 Today is the final day you can get 25% off All That Glistens: Chinese Party-State Influence in Britain with @waterstones.bsky.social @newchinabooks.bsky.social

We’ve started to receive early feedback:

“One of the most important books to have been published on the UK-China relationship”

2/3 Early feedback for the book:

1/3 @waterstones.bsky.social are offering 25% off my book if pre-ordered by Thursday:
All That Glistens: Chinese Party-State influence in Britain.
With @hurstpublishers.bsky.social

15/21 Jean Jameson is listed as Senior Vice President of Yang's Hampton Group on the website [and as CEO elsewhere] but other literature also demonstrates 48 Club group links - here she is listed as "responsible for the Secretariat of the 48 Club group". web.archive.org/web/20210302...

13/21 Andrew Methven is listed as UK CEO. If we go back again to the UK-China business entity 48 Club Group, this time to page 71 of their 2009 booklet, we find him listed as one of their “young icebreakers”. Yang's honorary membership of the 48 is referenced by the Home Office

12/21 Yang started a business in the UK: Hampton Group. Again, there is far too much to go into here but research produces some fascinating findings. Michie probably merits his own thread, for example. Yang, Jameson, & Michie are linked to various companies, sometimes together

10/21 Yang is not unfamiliar with the embassy. Here he is receiving an award from the then Chinese Ambassador to the UK, Liu Xiaoming. This took place at a 48 Group Club event, an organisation subject to much related scrutiny itself.
This is just a sample of Yang's activity...

9/21 At this 2018 Belt and Road event, Yang (4th from right) is with Xu Yousheng (5th from right), deputy head of the United Front Work Department at the time (as well as serving the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office).

3/21 It's not just Prince Andrew who will sit uncomfortably today, there will be plenty from the higher echelons of British business who might be looking over their shoulders. But first, what of Yang's links to the Chinese party-state?

2/21 Having lived a long time in China, I returned in the mid-2010s to pursue a PhD in shadow international relations between the UK and China. After performing preliminary research to select case studies, I briefly considered including Yang and his UK business...