Jensen Huang’s affair with a woman U.S. officials say is a Chinese spy has drawn attention
to the role of intimate relationships in espionage.
1. China’s Changing Intelligence Tactics
o Despite
an assurance in 1960 by a senior Chinese intelligence official that China would
never use romantic relationships for espionage, its intelligence agencies have
used such methods for decades.
o China's
Ministry of State Security (MSS) now oversees foreign intelligence operations
and domestic security.
2. Jensen Huang Case
o U.S.
officials allege that China's MSS recruited Chinese businesswoman Alice Huang (Huang Le)
to collect intelligence on Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
o She
was a senior executive of a Singapore-based company operating data centres in
Southeast Asia using Nvidia chips and renting computing capacity to Chinese
firms.
o Jensen
Huang has acknowledged having an affair with her.
o President
Trump said Huang told him he was unaware that the woman was allegedly a Chinese
spy.
o China
has rejected the espionage allegations. U.S. officials have not publicly
provided evidence supporting their claims.
o The
precise nature of her alleged intelligence activities remains unclear.
3. Romantic Relationships as an Espionage
Tool
o Using
romantic relationships and sexual entrapment is not unique to China.
o Historical
examples include:
§ East
Germany's Stasi agents, known as Romeos,
who seduced secretaries of Western officials.
§ The
Soviet Union's use of sexual blackmail to obtain intelligence.
o According
to former U.S. intelligence officer Nicholas Eftimiades,
China's distinctive approach involves cultivating relationships over long
periods, sometimes leading to marriage.
4. Famous Historical Espionage Cases
o Shi
Peipu–Bernard Boursicot
case: A Chinese opera singer maintained a
two-decade relationship with French diplomat Bernard Boursicot,
who subsequently spied for China.
o Both
were arrested and convicted of espionage in France in 1986. Boursicot
discovered during the investigation that his lover was a man.
o Their
story inspired David Henry Hwang's play M.
Butterfly.
5. Other Recent Chinese Espionage Cases
o Christine
Fang (Fang Fang): U.S. counterintelligence officials
believed she was a Chinese spy and had a physical relationship with former U.S.
Congressman Eric Swalwell between 2012 and 2015.
o U.S.
Army officer: A retired officer was sentenced to
prison in 2014 for sharing defence secrets, including details of U.S.–South
Korea military exercises, with a Chinese woman with whom he had a romantic
relationship.
o FBI
agent James J. Smith: Admitted in 2003 to having an almost
20-year affair with a Chinese-American businesswoman suspected of being a
Chinese double agent. She had passed classified U.S. government information to
Beijing.
6. U.S. Restrictions on Relationships in
China
o Last
year, the U.S. government prohibited American personnel stationed in China from
having romantic or sexual relationships with Chinese citizens, according to the
Associated Press.
o The
restriction reflects concerns about espionage through personal relationships
and potential emotional manipulation.
7. China's Own Warnings Against Foreign
Espionage
o China's
Ministry of State Security regularly warns citizens against foreign
intelligence operatives using romantic relationships to obtain information.
o In
May, the ministry published a warning on WeChat advising citizens to be
cautious of sudden romantic advances and excessive displays of affection.
o It
cautioned people against falling into a "gentle
trap."
8. China's Intelligence Methods: Blackmail
and Coercion
o According
to Alex Joske of Garnaut
Global, China's intelligence agency is more willing than Western agencies to
employ blackmail and coercion.
o Such
methods include romantic manipulation, sexual relationships, threats of arrest
and detention.
o Western
intelligence agencies generally consider blackmail a less reliable method of
recruiting and motivating intelligence sources.
9. Exploitation of Professional and Family
Networks
o China
does not necessarily deploy intelligence agents specifically to seduce
prominent individuals.
o Instead,
it often identifies people already within their professional or personal
circles who have access to sensitive information.
o China's
extensive overseas diaspora, including business executives and students,
provides potential recruitment opportunities.
o Family
relationships are also exploited. A former FBI agent in New York was recruited
with assistance from his mother in China to provide information about the
agency to Beijing. He pleaded guilty in 2016.
10. Why Romantic Relationships Are
Particularly Valuable
o Financial
incentives may not be sufficient to recruit wealthy and influential
individuals.
o Intelligence
agencies may therefore target someone close to them to gain indirect access.
o Such
relationships can serve two purposes:
§ Intelligence
gathering: Obtaining confidential business, technological,
defence or government information.
§ Influence
operations: Shaping the opinions and decisions of
influential individuals in ways favourable to Beijing.
o Emotional
involvement can influence personal judgement and make individuals more
receptive to requests from their partners.
China's
alleged espionage strategy increasingly relies on exploiting existing personal,
professional and family relationships rather than simply deploying conventional
spies. Long-term emotional relationships can provide access to wealthy
executives, policymakers and individuals possessing sensitive technological or
government information.
Important
qualification: The
allegations concerning Alice Huang and Jensen Huang remain unsubstantiated
publicly. The article distinguishes U.S. intelligence assessments from
established facts.
At
the height of the Cold War, a top official in China’s intelligence agency said that
his country would never use seduction to entrap a person.
Such
tactics might be for the C.I.A. or the K.G.B., the official named Kong Yuan, of
the Central Investigation Department, told a group of agents in training in April
1960, but China was guided by principles. He looked at the few female comrades in
the audience. “Rest assured, we will not be asking you to go run beauty traps.”
Despite
that pledge, captured in a 2010 memoir by a former Chinese diplomat, China’s intelligence
services have for decades used romantic entanglements to compromise or extract information
from prominent people.
American
officials say that China’s Ministry of State Security, which runs intelligence operations
today, recruited a Chinese businesswoman to collect intelligence on Jensen Huang.
Mr. Huang, who resigned on Thursday as the chief executive of Nvidia, has been one
of the most powerful figures in the artificial intelligence boom.
It
was not clear what role the woman, Alice Huang, or Huang Le, might have had with
the Chinese spy agency. Ms. Huang was a top executive of a Singapore company that
operates data centers in Southeast Asia using Nvidia chips
and that rents their computing power to Chinese firms.
Mr.
Huang has acknowledged that he had an affair with Ms. Huang. President Trump has
said that Mr. Huang told him that he was not aware that the woman was a spy. China
has rejected the espionage allegations against Ms. Huang, calling them smears against
the country. U.S. officials have not provided evidence for their claims. Ms. Huang
has not responded to requests for comment.
The
use of relationships or seduction in the world of espionage is not new or unique
to China. The tactic was made infamous by East Germany’s “Romeos,” male Stasi agents
tasked with seducing the clerks of Western officials, and by the Soviet Union’s
longtime use of sexual blackmail, among other examples.
What
is unique about China’s use of the tactic is the amount of time invested, according
to Nicholas Eftimiades, a retired senior American intelligence
officer who writes about China’s espionage operations.
“They
play this long term,” he said. “These are long-term relationships, sometimes marriages.”
Perhaps
the most famous example involves Shi Peipu, a Peking Opera
singer whose two-decade relationship with Bernard Boursicot,
who worked on French diplomatic missions in Beijing and Ulan Bator in Mongolia,
drew Mr. Boursicot into spying for China. Both were arrested
in France, at which point Mr. Boursicot learned that his
lover was a man. In 1986, they were convicted of espionage. Their story inspired
the play “M. Butterfly” by David Henry Hwang.
More
recent cases include Christine Fang, or Fang Fang, who
was believed by counterintelligence officials to be a Chinese spy and who was in
a physical relationship with former U.S. Representative Eric Swalwell between 2012
and 2015.
Separately,
a retired U.S. Army officer who was working as a contractor for the U.S. Pacific
Command in Hawaii was sentenced to prison in 2014 for emailing defense secrets, including details about joint training exercises
between the United States and South Korea, to a 27-year-old Chinese woman with whom
he had been involved romantically for almost two years.
In
2003, an F.B.I. agent, James J. Smith, who worked in Chinese counterintelligence,
admitted that he had an affair for nearly 20 years with a Chinese American businesswoman
suspected of being a Chinese double agent. The woman, whom he had recruited as an
asset, was found to have given classified U.S. government information to Beijing.
Both
the United States and China appear to be concerned about the possibility of emotional
or other manipulation by the other side. Last year, the U.S. government prohibited
American personnel in China from having romantic or sexual relationships with Chinese
citizens, according to The Associated Press.
China’s
intelligence agency itself frequently warns its citizens to look out for foreign
operatives attempting to trap them. In May, China’s Ministry of State Security published
an article on WeChat that called on residents to “be wary of sudden advances and
overt displays of affection from seemingly perfect individuals of the opposite sex.”
“Avoid
falling into the ‘gentle trap,’” it said.
Alex
Joske, managing director at Garnaut
Global, an advisory firm, said the Chinese ministry’s warnings about espionage “are
usually based on the kinds of things that they do rather than what other countries
actually do.”
Compared
with Western intelligence agencies, the Chinese government is more willing to use
blackmail and coercion in its operations, including romance and sexual activities,
he argued. Western governments see blackmail as a less reliable way of motivating
a source or asset, he said.
China’s
Ministry of State Security, which oversees operations abroad as well as security
within the country, is known for its highly coercive methods that include threats
of arrest and detention.
The
agency also exploits other forms of relationships, like family ties. A former F.B.I.
agent in New York was recruited, with the help of his mother in China, to pass information
about the agency to Beijing. He pleaded guilty to the charges in 2016.
China
does engage in the kind of sexually baited entrapment one might see in a spy drama,
according to former American intelligence officers. “A diplomat walks into his hotel
room, and there’s a girl in his bed. I mean, that stuff happens. It’s just kind
of ridiculous,” Mr. Eftimiades said.
Dennis
Wilder, who was senior China director at the National Security Council during the
George W. Bush administration and a former senior intelligence officer, describes
how when he traveled to Beijing, a woman would often be
waiting in the elevator for him when he returned to his hotel.
“She’d
say, ‘You know, I can come to your room.’ And I’d say, ‘Well why do you want to
come to my room?’ And they did this over and over again to see if they could get
me,” he said, noting that if he was ever to publicly accuse the Chinese of trying
to entrap him, they could say the women were prostitutes working on their own volition.
“That’s
the beauty of this kind of thing. It’s totally deniable,” Mr. Wilder said.
But
more often than not, Mr. Eftimiades said, Beijing is not
sending operatives to stage romantic encounters for blackmail. Instead, it looks
for people whose personal or professional lives give them access to potential targets,
he said.
Many
details of the relationship between Mr. Huang and Ms. Huang, including when they
met and under what circumstances Ms. Huang may have begun gathering information
for Beijing, remain unclear.
China’s
large diaspora includes executives, students and others who can be recruited in
what Mr. Eftimiades calls the country’s “whole of society”
approach to espionage.
Of
the many cases of Chinese spying that have come to light over the past few years,
only a handful involve romantic relationships. In most cases, the best motivation
is money, Mr. Joske says. But when it comes to targeting
wealthy elites, money is not always as powerful a recruitment tool.
“So
instead, you try to co-opt someone in their circle,” he said. That includes someone
with whom that person has a close relationship.
A
close relationship is also conducive to another major goal of China’s intelligence
operations, which is to exert influence on key decision makers or gather information
to sway other prominent figures to support policies favorable
to Beijing.
“Once
you become emotionally involved with somebody, your base line judgment changes,”
said Matthew Brazil, a senior fellow at The Jamestown Foundation focusing on Chinese
intelligence operations. “People want to please their lovers.”