Jensen Huang alleged honeytrap proves CCP spies still infiltrating top levels of the US: Mission is to exploit | Latest Tech News
Foreign “honeytrap” spies are a severe blind spot in the US’s national security defenses — as the case of Jensen Huang highlights.
The Nvidia CEO admitted an affair with suspected Chinese spy Alice Huang (no relation) this weekend — who is also suspected of manipulating her mark to get banned high-powered processing chips into her home nation for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
His case is not an anomaly, as spies from Russia, Iran, North Korea and particularly China discover infiltrating the US and either getting elected to positions of duty or seducing those in energy one of the best methods to extract data or affect coverage.
Alice Huang (at the back of the image) attends a dinner with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (in black T-shirt)at a restaurant in Taipei, Taiwan, May 22, 2025. via REUTERS
Jensen Huang, left, attends a dinner with Alice Huang at a restaurant in Taipei, Taiwan, May 22, 2025, in this screengrab from video obtained Nov. 9, 2026. CTI/AFPTV/AFP via Getty Images
China’s Ministry of State Security comes from a custom which “celebrates getting inside the adversary’s decision making and shaping what they do,” Peter Mattis, a former CIA counterintelligence analyst and president of the Jamestown Foundation, told The Post.
“Intelligence is not about the collection of classified information. Intelligence is about supporting decisions, supporting decision makers and policymakers.”
In today’s climate, there is no business more cutting edge and aggressive and AI, which is why pc geeks in all positions at tech firms in all places are always being warned to be on the lookout.
Or, as Elon Musk once identified in a cheeky reply to a story about so-called intercourse warfare waged by rogue nations, “If she’s a 10, you’re an asset.”
The same applies in politics. Ex-California congressman Eric Swalwell had a strong marketing campaign to grow to be the next governor of the state until it emerged he’d had a inappropriate relationship with suspected Chinese spy Christine Fang, recognized as “Fang Fang,” who had infiltrated his workplace while under FBI surveillance, it emerged earlier this yr.
Peter Mattis, the president of The Jamestown Foundation, is also the co-author of ‘Chinese Communist Espionage: An Intelligence Primer’. Courtesy of Peter Mattis
Once Fang realized she was being watched she fled back to China. She had initially come to the US on a pupil visa and has been accused of seducing two mayors in the Midwest — whose names have never been revealed —before Swalwell, FBI stories claimed.
It was later decided Swalwell, who was also accused of inappropriate harassment by other ladies, had damaged no legal guidelines in his relationship with Fang.
Not all alleged infiltrations are inappropriate. Linda Sun, a former Aide to New York Governors Andrew Cuomo and Kathy Hochul was put on trial for allegedly utilizing her official state place to advance Beijing’s pursuits, such as blocking Taiwanese officers from management and forging signatures. Her case ended in a mistrial.
NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang sits with Alice Huang at an event during the COMPUTEX discussion board in Taipei, Taiwan, in June 2024. Via GWN
Meanwhile, the mayor of Arcadia in California, Eileen Wang, 56, stepped down from her place days before being charged with performing as an unlawful agent of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in May. She has yet to face trial.
Mattis warned that not everybody begins out as a spy, and in many circumstances overseas governments search to exploit relationships which have already been established.
In the case of Huang — who labored for tech companies which imported Nvidia chips, but not to China — the exact sequence is yet to be decided.
“It’s not clear whether they saw the relationship [Jensen and Alice] and then tried to exploit it,” Mattis said.
The NVIDIA brand signal is displayed outdoors the company’s headquarters in Taipei, Taiwan, Monday, Nov. 9, 2026. RITCHIE B TONGO/EPA/Shutterstock
An different, he said, was Chinese intelligence already having a relationship with Alice Huang and in search of to exploit her business contacts.
“If you trust someone, you talk to them about things that you might not talk about with other people,” Mattis said.
Shared skilled pursuits can also make probing questions about provide, prospects and coverage sound completely unusual.
Mattis said overseas nations have an interest in provide chains and business strain factors — but also shaping what their honeytraps inform others in energy.
“The mission would be to exploit someone who can shape an executive’s view of things so that they will make particular recommendations,” he said.
The scale of operations is very onerous to gauge.
In January 2022, then-FBI director Christopher Wray said more than 2,000 investigations involved Chinese authorities efforts to steal American data or technology.
The bureau was opening a new China-related counterintelligence case roughly every 12 hours. Those figures counted investigations, not particular person spies or honeytraps.
Lori Huang, left, and Jensen Huang arrive at the twelfth Annual Breakthrough Prize Ceremony in Santa Monica, Calif., Saturday, April 18, 2026. Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency / BACKGRID
Mattis described China’s Ministry of State Security as a “vast sprawling apparatus,” encompassing the central ministry, 34 provincial departments and bureaus, and lots of of local workplaces.
He estimated its general workforce might attain “600,000, 700,000” officers, but harassed they most focus on exercise inside China.
Partly for this cause and because of suspicions over honeytrapping, the Biden administration prevented any US authorities officers in China from having intercourse with Chinese ladies. Trump has continued the same prohibition.
Still, operations outdoors of the mainland from China and Russia vary from the most refined to the fairly brazen.
“I’m getting an enormous number of very sophisticated LinkedIn requests from the same type of attractive young Chinese woman,” James Mulvenon, chief intelligence officer at risk-assessment firm Pamir Consulting, famous to The Times last yr.
Many suspected spies are prepared to be deep undercover and play the long recreation too.
“Showing up, marrying a target, having kids with a target — and conducting a lifelong collection operation, it’s very uncomfortable to think about but it’s so prevalent,” one former counterespionage official famous in the same report.
RT presenter Maria Butina speaks with journalists as Direct Democracy Party founder Vyacheslav Makarov launches his get together in Moscow on March 5, 2020. AFP via Getty Images
Having used this model but been busted, ten Russian brokers pleaded guilty in 2010 to conspiring to operate unlawfully in the US. Some used stolen identities while building ordinary-looking lives and relationships, according to the FBI.
Russian national Maria Butina later admitted conspiring to act as an agent of Russia after cultivating politically influential Americans and organizations to set up unofficial communication channels. She was sentenced to 18 months in 2019.
Foreign adversaries often infiltrate and exploit communities already in the US as the first step into the US.
“A key means they may conduct espionage is through Chinese-American communities and teams that are sympathetic to the state … this is just the start. Stealing commerce secrets and techniques and tutorial research are all half of the Chinese playbook.
“It is a whole party effort by the CCP to undermine the American way of life and threaten American innovation and dominance,” Andrew Harding of The Heritage Foundation not too long ago told The Post.
Chinese spy Yanjun Xu was arrested in 2018 in Belgium before being extradited to the United States in 2021. US District Courts
For instance, Chinese intelligence officer, Yanjun Xu, helped lure a GE Aviation worker into delivering a presentation at a Chinese college as half of an effort to get hold of aviation commerce secrets and techniques. Xu was convicted and sentenced in 2022. He was later pardoned Biden.
Most worryingly, those who don’t comply or their households may be threatened, even if they abscond from their duties.
Mattis said Chinese authorities don’t hesitate to exploit real relationships by threatening a associate or their household.
“They’ll say: ‘We’ll harm this person and their family if you don’t cooperate with us’,” he added.
Stay informed with the latest in tech! Our web site is your trusted source for breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, gadget launches, software program updates, cybersecurity, and digital innovation.
For recent insights, skilled coverage, and trending tech updates, go to us recurrently by clicking right here.
