The Cold War may have ended decades ago, but male British diplomats arriving in Moscow are still warned about one of the oldest hazards of espionage before they settle into their offices.
During a routine security briefing, embassy officials tell middle-aged men to check the so-called “ugly mirror” every morning. The exercise is meant to remind them that if an attractive young Russian woman suddenly appears captivated by them, their looks are unlikely to be the reason.
It is difficult to imagine that Jensen Huang, the 63-year-old Nvidia chief who cuts a flamboyant figure in his native Taiwan with his signature glasses, $9,000 Tom Ford leather jackets and billionaire status, has ever felt the need for such a reminder.
Had he done so, the husband of Lori Huang since 1985 might perhaps have avoided the fate of generations of influential older men who have fallen victim to one of espionage’s oldest weapons: the honey trap. Allegations surrounding suspected Chinese spy Alice Huang could now threaten his position at the summit of the technology industry.
The tactic exploits a familiar vulnerability: the attraction some older men feel toward younger women. From Delilah, who extracted Samson’s secret strength from him for the Philistines in the Old Testament, seductive operatives have used intimacy to obtain information and influence powerful targets.
For decades, the Soviet Union and later communist China turned to honeytrapping — also known as honeypotting or “sex warfare” — to compensate for Western advantages in other areas of intelligence gathering. Experts say the method can be highly effective because it exploits loneliness and unfulfilled sexual needs, particularly among people living abroad with few opportunities to socialize freely.
America’s main rivals clearly continue to regard the tactic as useful. Many potential targets are technology specialists who, like Huang — who has said his teenage job at Denny’s helped him overcome severe shyness — may find romantic relationships difficult to navigate.
Last month, artificial intelligence company OpenAI reportedly warned its engineers about the risks of honey traps. The company is said to have cited a case in which foreign agents tried to seduce a US diplomat in Russia by sending a blonde woman to his hotel room with champagne.
It is still unclear how Alice Huang first came into contact with Jensen Huang
Lori and Jensen Huang married in 1985, eight years before Jensen helped found Nvidia
When he refused, the intelligence service allegedly tried again — first with a red-haired woman and then with a young man.
Hollywood has long transformed honey-trap espionage into glamorous entertainment, from Alfred Hitchcock’s 1959 film North by Northwest and countless James Bond productions to more recent series including The Americans and Ponies.
Behind the cinematic glamour, however, intelligence specialists say the threat remains serious. China has increasingly viewed US leadership in advanced technologies, including semiconductors and artificial intelligence, as a strategic weakness that can be targeted through HUMINT — human intelligence.
That approach can involve attractive young women serving as professional agents for China’s Ministry of State Security, the country’s equivalent of the CIA. It may also involve Chinese citizens pressured into flirting with or sleeping with targets on behalf of the state, according to analysts of Beijing’s intelligence operations.
China has traditionally focused much of its espionage effort on economic rather than military or political secrets. Experts say that strategy gives agents access to businessmen and industrialists — “soft targets” who generally lack the security training and protection available to government or military officials.
In cases such as that allegedly involving Alice Huang, a senior executive at a Singapore technology company, the operative may already be a businesswoman, academic or investor. If not, she can pose as one, creating a credible reason to approach the target. Bars are a common meeting place, although analysts say they can also make potential victims more suspicious and careful.
Hacking can steal valuable information, but a close personal relationship offers something potentially more powerful: direct access to data and the ability to shape a target’s decisions.
Some intelligence specialists believe Huang’s friendship with and advisory role to Donald Trump, particularly as the former president developed positions on China and artificial intelligence, may have been more valuable to Beijing than any Nvidia technical information he could have revealed.
Nvidia chief Jensen Huang is alleged to have become involved with suspected Chinese spy Alice Huang in a case experts compare with historic honey-trap operations
On Wednesday, the New York Times reported allegations of a second affair involving Kimberly Powell, a company executive who reports to Huang
Huang has apologized for being “unfaithful” to his wife, while Nvidia’s board has begun an independent investigation.
“I support the investigation and will cooperate fully,” Huang wrote in an internal memo on Sunday, November 8. “I love our country and our company. I am committed to protecting NVIDIA and supporting America’s national security. I am proud and grateful to be an American.”
The crisis deepened on Wednesday when the New York Times reported allegations that Huang had a second extramarital affair, this time with an Nvidia executive who reports to him.
Nvidia shares plunged in after-hours trading after the report, while subsequent claims suggested the board was considering removing Huang. Such a move, some observers fear, could puncture the artificial intelligence boom and send shock waves through the global economy.
The fallout is likely to put technology executives and engineers across Silicon Valley on heightened alert about relationships both inside and outside the workplace. US intelligence agencies have warned for years that, as technology and trade tensions with China intensify, Beijing is aggressively seeking personal weaknesses among Western men.
Cases involving Western diplomats and honey traps are usually kept out of the public eye, with the target quietly returned home. US intelligence sources, however, say two such incidents in China have become public.
The danger is considered particularly acute in China because the country’s security services do not rely solely on professional spies. They also pressure ordinary citizens to provide information through threats or intimidation. As a result, any Chinese partner of an American expatriate could potentially be coerced into espionage.
Alice Huang is described as a senior executive at a Singapore technology company
Experts say exploiting the loneliness and sexual frustrations of people living overseas can be an effective intelligence tactic
The perceived threat was underscored last year when it emerged that, despite Donald Trump’s public warmth toward Chinese President Xi Jinping, his administration had retained a ban introduced under Joe Biden that prohibited US government employees in China from having romantic or sexual relationships with local people.
Washington has long required employees to disclose romantic relationships with foreign nationals. China, wary of exposing itself to the same tactics it uses against others, prohibits its own government workers from such relationships — unless, naturally, they are operating undercover.
Like Britain’s “ugly mirror” warning, US diplomats bound for China now receive presentations about honey traps, including case studies in which attractive women were sent to seduce colleagues. They are also warned that Chinese state security may assign dozens of agents to monitor a single foreign diplomat.
The Biden-era ban also had a Cold War precedent. Honey traps flourished when intelligence officers from both sides could operate inside their adversaries’ countries.
In 1987, the US government barred personnel stationed in the Soviet bloc and China from befriending, dating or having sex with local people after a US Marine in Moscow was recruited by a Soviet spy. Clayton Lonetree was seduced by Violetta Seina, an employee at the Soviet embassy, and later handed over to a KGB handler. He was convicted of espionage and sentenced to nine years in prison.
The restrictions were eased only after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.
Until then, US personnel in China were required to report intimate contact with Chinese citizens to their supervisors, although romantic and sexual relationships were not expressly prohibited.
According to an Associated Press report, personnel preparing to serve in China are briefed on cases in which Chinese intelligence agents sent attractive women to approach American diplomats. They are also told that dozens of security officers can be assigned to monitor one diplomat and identify personal weaknesses.
China and Russia are far from the only countries to have used honey traps. Mata Hari, the exotic Dutch dancer, was executed by France in 1917 as a German spy during World War One, although historians continue to dispute how much espionage she actually conducted.
During World War Two, the British author Roald Dahl effectively served as a “Romeo spy” for British intelligence. The former RAF pilot used his charm, humor and appearance in Washington, DC, to seduce wealthy, well-connected American women, gather information and encourage influential figures to support US involvement in the war on Britain’s side.
It was the Soviet Union, however, that developed the honey trap into a central espionage tool. The NKVD and its successor, the KGB, trained large numbers of female operatives known as “swallows” and male seducers called “ravens.” Defectors even described a dedicated “sparrow school” where such agents learned their trade.
The classic Soviet method was often less about casually extracting secrets during pillow talk than about seduction followed by surveillance, recording and blackmail.
The tactic was especially effective in the tightly controlled Soviet bloc, where foreigners lived in restricted environments and agents could easily record them in compromising situations.
Despite Trump’s friendly public comments about Xi Jinping, his administration retained a Biden-era ban on US government employees in China having romantic or sexual relationships with locals
Mata Hari, the Dutch dancer, was executed by France in 1917 after being accused of spying for Germany during World War One
Some targets were gay, making the threat of exposure particularly potent at a time when homosexuality could destroy a career. John Vassall, a gay British embassy employee in Moscow, was lured to a party where compromising photographs were taken. He was then pressured into passing British naval secrets to the Soviets for about seven years before his arrest in 1962 and subsequent imprisonment.
Other operations were remarkably elaborate. In the late 1950s, a KGB “swallow” seduced Maurice Dejean, France’s ambassador to Moscow. An accomplice then posed as a jealous husband and assaulted him, deepening the ambassador’s humiliation.
East Germany’s Stasi was especially skilled at deploying male honey traps. Attractive agents were sent to Bonn, then West Germany’s capital, to pursue lonely female secretaries working in government ministries.
In 1967, Leonore Sutterlin, a secretary to the foreign minister, died by suicide after discovering that her husband was a Stasi agent who had married her to gain access to confidential documents.
Russia continued using honey traps after the Soviet collapse, but changing social attitudes forced a shift in tactics. As homosexuality was decriminalized and became less stigmatized in the West, the threat of blackmail lost some of its force.
Chinese intelligence officials have generally favored a less confrontational strategy. Rather than relying immediately on blackmail, agents often cultivate long-term relationships until their targets become emotionally, financially or professionally dependent on them.
Perhaps the best-known Chinese honey-trap case involved Shi Pei Pu and Bernard Boursicot. Shi, a Peking Opera singer, carried on a 20-year relationship with Boursicot, an employee at the French embassy in Beijing, from the 1960s through the 1980s while convincing him that Shi was a woman.
The couple had sex in darkness, and Shi told Boursicot that he had been forced to live as a man to satisfy his father’s desire for a son. Chinese authorities used the extraordinary relationship — later dramatized in the play M. Butterfly — to pressure Boursicot into handing over hundreds of confidential French documents.
Post-Soviet Russia has made extensive use of “kompromat,” or compromising material used for blackmail. China’s approach, experts say, is more patient and generally less coercive, with operations sometimes taking months or years to produce results.
For Beijing, patience is central to the strategy. Christine Fang, also known as Fang Fang, is a suspected Chinese intelligence operative who left the United States in 2015 after posing as a political volunteer. Intelligence experts say she spent years cultivating politicians in California during the early and mid-2010s and was linked to former US Congressman Eric Swalwell in FBI documents.
Swalwell acknowledged having “physical relations with Fang on a handful of occasions,” but said they never dated or had a romantic relationship. The FBI found no evidence of a quid pro quo.
Fang’s alleged strategy was long-term. She focused on politicians at the beginning of their careers, volunteering for campaigns and helping with fundraising in the hope that some would eventually gain positions of power. The FBI said she was believed to be working for China’s Ministry of State Security.
One of the most notorious Chinese honey-trap cases involved Bernard Boursicot, a French embassy employee in Beijing
Peking Opera singer Shi Pei Pu spent 20 years in a relationship with Boursicot while persuading him that Shi was a woman
FBI documents say former US Congressman Eric Swalwell was targeted by suspected Chinese intelligence operative Christine Fang, also known as Fang Fang
China and Russia still use honeypot operations, but modern campaigns increasingly begin online. Intelligence services are believed to create fake profiles on an industrial scale across social media, professional networks and dating platforms.
LinkedIn can be particularly useful because it allows agents to identify people in sensitive roles within seconds. Initial contact may appear entirely harmless.
Western intelligence agencies say warning signs include an unusually attractive or attentive woman who quickly expresses interest in a target’s work, colleagues or professional responsibilities, even under the guise of casual curiosity.
Other red flags include pressure to meet in person, an unusually rapid escalation of the relationship or requests to keep the contact secret. Gifts and favors may also be used to create a sense of obligation.
The new friend may encourage the target to drink heavily or disregard workplace rules. Such behavior can lower inhibitions and make a person more likely to disclose confidential information.
Businesspeople are frequently invited to China for conferences, official delegations or supposedly informal “friendship” visits. Once there, they may be treated like VIPs, surrounded by banquets, karaoke and sustained personal attention.
Britain’s MI5 addressed the threat earlier this year through its “Think Before You Link” campaign, aimed at government and military personnel as well as employees in strategically important industries. The agency has previously warned British businesspeople against meeting contacts in Chinese hotel rooms or accepting gifts.
As the relationship deepens, the target may not realize that he is being recruited. The operative can begin with gentle, apparently innocent questions about work, presenting them as signs of personal interest.
Over time, the questions may become more probing and compromising. By then, the target may be emotionally invested and increasingly reluctant to refuse. Experts say Chinese intelligence services retain blackmail as a final option if persuasion and dependence fail.
It remains unknown how Alice Huang first met Jensen Huang. What he appears to have learned the hard way is that the attraction may not have been driven by his carefully cultivated image as a technology superstar.
- Nvidia shares fell about 8 percent in after-hours trading on Wednesday. The company has lost roughly $600 billion in market value this week.
