China:
selling access he did not have

The core mechanism. Epstein's asset in China was not a relationship with anyone Chinese. It was Prince Andrew's documented meetings with Xi Jinping — and his willingness to describe that proximity to third parties as something he could deploy.

In a November 2015 email to LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman, Epstein noted that Andrew had spent a significant amount of time with Xi Jinping. His role, as the correspondence shows, centred on offering to facilitate meetings between businessmen and the Chinese side through Andrew.

Andrew's meetings with Xi were real and official — they occurred during the UK's "Golden Era" of China relations, and Andrew was a trade envoy. What Epstein added was the claim that this proximity was available for hire.

The pattern is identical to Africa and Europe. Epstein positioned himself between two parties who each assumed the other had vetted him. In Uganda he sold an aircraft. In Senegal he bought a release. In China the counterparty never materialised.

Why the file is still enormous. Roughly 23,000 pages reference China — but volume here reflects ambition, not achievement. Epstein talked about China constantly, to Thiel, to Hoffman, to Mandelson, to bankers and academics, because China was the largest available prize and being seen to have a route into it was itself valuable.

The most important sentence in this report. No Chinese official has been shown to have had any relationship with Epstein. Every Chinese name in these files appears because a Westerner mentioned it to another Westerner.

The central figure in Epstein's China file is not Chinese. He is a German businessman who previously worked for Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, and who claimed relationships across China's business and political elite.

The Wire China's review of the files found that most of Epstein's potential dealings in China were pitched by Stern.

The Rothschild fund — July 21, 2011. Stern told Epstein that Lord Jacob Rothschild was travelling to Beijing to raise a $750 million private equity fund from Chinese investors.

The line that matters is what Stern wrote next:

"This topic keeps moving fast, its a massive opportunity. I will keep low profile/no action as instructed until you give me the go-ahead."

Read the second sentence. Stern is not informing Epstein. He is reporting to him, and awaiting authorisation. Asia Sentinel's assessment: the email indicates Epstein was a decision-maker behind the China deal.

Whether Epstein ever became involved in the Rothschild fund is unknown.

Boyu Capital — April 24, 2011. Stern forwarded Epstein information about Boyu Capital, a Chinese private equity firm co-founded by a "princeling." He described two of its executives as his "friends": Louis Cheung, former president of Ping An Insurance, and Alvin Jiang, grandson of former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin.

Stern has also invested in projects with Li Botan, son-in-law of Jia Qinglin, once the Chinese Communist Party's fourth-highest-ranked official.

These are Stern's characterisations of his own contacts, in emails to Epstein. None of the Chinese individuals named is alleged to have had any dealing with Epstein, and none is accused of wrongdoing.

What was real. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor served as the UK's Special Representative for International Trade from 2001 to 2011, and met Xi Jinping in an official capacity. Official records confirm the meetings. This was the period of the UK–China "Golden Era."

What Epstein did with it. In November 2015 — seven years after his conviction, four years after Andrew left the trade role — Epstein emailed Reid Hoffman noting that Andrew had spent significant time with Xi.

The offer embedded in that correspondence was to facilitate meetings between businessmen and the Chinese side through Andrew.

The chronology is the finding. Andrew's trade envoy role ended in 2011, amid criticism of his association with Epstein. Epstein was still marketing Andrew's China access in 2015.

And the same period is now criminal. Andrew was arrested in February 2026 on suspicion of misconduct in public office over allegations that he forwarded confidential official reports on his trade visits to Epstein — dated to 2010 and 2011.

Files released in May 2026 suggest he was never vetted before taking the trade envoy role.

The two threads join here. The British investigation concerns what Andrew allegedly gave Epstein from the trade brief. This report concerns what Epstein then did with the relationship — which was to advertise it as a route into Beijing.

Andrew denies all wrongdoing, was released under investigation, and has not been charged. No allegation has been made that any Chinese party participated in or was aware of any of this.

The most serious documented thread, and the one with live legal consequences.

Peter Mandelson — former EU Trade Commissioner, later British Ambassador to Washington — told Epstein that "CICC retain us."

What CICC is. China International Capital Corporation, a Beijing-based investment bank with close ties to the Chinese government and state-owned enterprises. In China's party-state system it functions as a major foreign investment bridge operating under Chinese Communist Party guidance.

What the statement indicates. That Mandelson's consultancy, Global Counsel, had secured a contract advising Chinese entities on cross-border deals — positioning his political credentials and government experience as the asset.

"Almost god-like status." In emails between visits in 2010, Mandelson described being accorded that standing by Chinese officials.

The financial relationship. Records show Epstein made the first of three payments totalling $75,000 to accounts linked to Mandelson in 2003 — the same year Mandelson wrote a note in Epstein's 50th birthday book calling him "my best pal."

The analytical question raised. The Bureau's analysis argues the pattern suggests Epstein was encouraging — if not orchestrating — a strategy of positioning former British officials as bridges to China's Communist Party elite, and notes a parallel involving JPMorgan executive Jes Staley.

Its concern: whether the Brown and later Starmer governments were exposed to compromised advice on China policy. Mandelson was brought back into government by Starmer years after these exchanges.

Scotland Yard has blocked release of certain evidence, citing prejudice to ongoing criminal investigations.

Mandelson was arrested in February 2026, released without charge, and denies wrongdoing. The influence-operation framing is analysis, not an established finding.

Epstein's documented method for entering any institution was to fund and flatter its scientists. It worked at MIT and Harvard. The files indicate he attempted the same approach toward China.

The reported plan. Epstein is described as having leveraged the prominent Chinese-American mathematician Shing-Tung Yau to propose a confidential "Tsinghua–Boston campus" arrangement, and as acting as a liaison toward Tsinghua University's president, Qiu Yong. He is reported to have been invited to visit Tsinghua.

A sourcing caution. This account originates substantially with Vision Times, an outlet with a declared editorial position opposed to the Chinese Communist Party, in a piece headlined around the misleading claim that the files "name Xi Jinping."

This site treats the Tsinghua material as reported but not independently corroborated in the mainstream review of the files. The Wire China's detailed survey of Epstein's China business plans does not centre it.

What is more firmly established is the pattern it would fit. Epstein routed a sovereign currency proposal for Zimbabwe through MIT's Media Lab director. He used academic intermediaries to reach Bill Gates. He funded genetics and evolutionary biology research to buy standing.

An academic channel into a politically sensitive Chinese university would be the same play. Whether it advanced beyond a proposal is not established, and no Chinese institution has been shown to have accepted anything.

No allegation of wrongdoing is made here against Shing-Tung Yau, Qiu Yong or Tsinghua University.

Ian Osborne, a British investor living in Hong Kong, provides the clearest single demonstration in the entire China file of what Epstein actually was to these men.

In an email dated March 7, 2012, Osborne wrote to Epstein:

"We dropped the Brazilian deal on YOUR advice after you told me at the island not to waste effort on a $1.5 million investment."

Two things in one sentence. Epstein's investment direction was followed — a deal was dropped because he said so. And the advice was given at Little St. James.

What that establishes. The island was not only where the abuse occurred. It was a place where business decisions were made, by people who then acted on them from Hong Kong.

Hedosphia Investments. Through Osborne, Epstein made edits and inputs to documents relating to the establishment of the investment firm Hedosphia.

Why Hong Kong rather than the mainland. Hong Kong in this period was the standard access point for Western capital seeking Chinese exposure — the jurisdiction where the deals were structured. Epstein's Asia footprint sits there, not in Beijing.

No allegation of wrongdoing is established against Osborne, who has not been charged.