The honeypot plot against America: Secrets of X-rated playbook spies use to bed elite men revealed… as Nvidia affair scandal threatens economic catastrophe

The Cold War supposedly ended decades ago but male British diplomats stationed in Moscow are still introduced to one of the harsh realities of their job before they've even got their feet under their desk.

In a standard briefing, an embassy security officer urges these middle-aged males to not forget to look into the so-called 'ugly mirror' every morning – to remind themselves, with a glimpse of their reflection, that if some beautiful young Russian woman suddenly finds them irresistible, it isn't because of their looks.

One can only imagine that 63-year-old Nvidia boss Jensen Huang, strutting around like a bespectacled peacock with his $9,000 Tom Ford leather biker jackets, billionaire status and rock star reputation in his native Taiwan, has never thought he needed to peer into an ugly mirror.

If he had, the man married to Lori Huang since 1985, might never have fallen for suspected Chinese spy Alice Huang and avoided the same fate of powerful, older men who for centuries have fallen for the oldest trick in the espionage book – the honey trap, which may now be the catalyst in his fall from the pinnacle of the tech world.

Exploiting the seemingly inevitable weakness of men of a certain age for women of a younger age, femmes fatales have been seducing mighty men to gain information or influence since Delilah wheedled out of Samson the secret to his superhuman strength (his flowing mane of hair) for her Philistine paymasters in the Old Testament.

For decades, Soviet Russia, and later communist China, particularly relied on honeytrapping – also known as honeypotting and 'sex warfare' – to make up for the West's advantages in more conventional espionage areas. And experts attest that, by preying on the loneliness or unsatisfied sexual desires of targets, often living far away from home in countries where there is limited scope for socializing with local people, it can be incredibly effective.

And America's principal adversaries clearly continue to rate honeytraps highly, encouraged perhaps by the fact that so many targets nowadays are – like Huang, who admitted that working as a waiter at Denny's in his youth helped him overcome his crippling shyness – techie types who may find it especially challenging to connect romantically with women.

Only last month, it was revealed that the artificial intelligence giant OpenAI issued a warning to its engineers about the danger of honey traps. It reportedly illustrates the danger with the story of how foreign spies seduced a US diplomat in Russia by first sending a blonde woman to his hotel room with champagne.

Lori Huang and Jensen Huang married in 1985, eight years before Jensen co-founded Nvidia 

When he declined, the spy agency sent a red-headed woman and, then, a young man.

Hollywood churns out movies and TV shows about honey pot spies – from Hitchcock's 1959 classic North by Northwest and pretty much every James Bond film, to far more recent series such as The Americans and Ponies – as often light-hearted, glamour-fueled entertainment.

However, intelligence experts say it remains a very serious problem, particularly now that China has recognized that US dominance in advanced technologies such as semiconductors and AI is a strategic vulnerability that can be addressed by so-called HUMINT, or human intelligence.

The latter includes using attractive young women, either professional agents working for China's Ministry of State Security (the country's equivalent of the CIA) or – because China is infamous for pressuring ordinary citizens into spying – other Chinese people persuaded to flirt or even sleep for the state, say Beijing watchers.

China has for years concentrated its spying activities on economic rather than military or political espionage. This, say experts, has the advantage that their quarries are businessmen and industrialists, so-called 'soft targets' who won't have the training or protection of people in government or the military.

Often, as it appears in the case of Alice Huang who is a Senior Executive at a Singapore tech company, if they are not already businesswomen, academics or investors, they will pose as them to provide them with cover and a useful, unsuspicious way of making initial contact with their target. Although bars are a favored way of making that first contact, they are rather obvious, say espionage analysts, and potential victims are consequently more on their guard when they are in one.

And of course, while hacking can be an effective way of stealing information, establishing an intimate personal relationship not only provides potential access to the data but, often even more usefully, the opportunity to influence the target.

Some intelligence experts believe that Jensen Huang's status as a close friend and advisor to Donald Trump as he framed his policies on China and AI will have been far more attractive to Beijing than anything their agent might have been able to glean about Nvidia's technological secrets. 

Nvidia boss Jensen Huang is said to have fallen for fragrant suspected Chinese spy Alice Huang, as older men who for centuries have fallen for the oldest trick in the espionage book – the honey trap

On Wednesday, allegations emerged in the New York Times that the CEO had a second extramarital affair, this time with Kimberly Powell, an executive at the company who reports to him

Jensen Huang has apologized for being 'unfaithful' to his wife and also addressed Nvidia's Board of Directors has initiated an independent investigation.

'I support the investigation and will cooperate fully,' he said 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.'

But the situation went from bad to worse for Huang on Wednesday, when allegations emerged in the New York Times that the CEO had a second extramarital affair, this time with an executive at the company who reports to him.

Nvidia shares dropped sharply after hours when the news emerged, and reports have since swirled that the company's board is preparing to oust Huang from his post, a decision that many fear could pop the AI bubble and cause a ripple effect across the global economy.

Now tech bosses and engineers across Silicon Valley will be on high alert about relationships in and outside the office. US intelligence has been warning for years that, amid increasing technological and trade tensions with China, Beijing was making aggressive use of honey traps to exploit any vulnerabilities among western men it can find.

Incidents of western diplomats falling victim to honey traps are usually hushed up and the target quietly brought back home but US intelligence insiders say there have been two publicized cases of it happening in China.

They say that the problem is particularly severe in China because the country's state security doesn't just use spies to gather intelligence but routinely puts pressure on its own citizens to provide information either by threats or intimidation. This means that any Chinese lover of an American ex-pat could be vulnerable to being turned into a spy.

Alice Huang is a Senior Executive at a Singapore tech company

Experts attest that preying on the loneliness or unsatisfied sexual desires of targets, often living far away from home is an effective strategy

As an illustration of the threat that China is perceived to pose in this sphere, it was revealed last year that – for all the US President's warm words about Chinese leader Xi Jinping – the Trump administration was keeping a Biden era ban on US government staff in China from having any romantic or sexual relations with locals.

The US government has long required staff to disclose romantic relationships with foreign nationals while China, naturally averse to being caught out by its own tactics, forbids its own government staff from any such relations (unless, of course, they are spies).

Rather like the UK's 'ugly mirror' reminder, US diplomatic staff heading to China are now given presentations in which they are warned of the dangers with briefings on case studies in which attractive women were dispatched to seduce their colleagues. And they're warned that dozens of Chinese state security agents can be assigned to monitor a single foreign diplomat.

The Biden ban on sex with the locals had a historical precedent. Honey traps were, predictably, rife during the Cold War when agents for both sides were able to work in their adversaries' countries.

In 1987, the US government barred staff stationed in the Soviet bloc and China from befriending, dating or having sex with locals after a US Marine in Moscow was seduced by a Soviet spy. The Marine, Clayton Lonetree, was seduced by Violetta Seina, a Soviet embassy employee, then passed to a KGB handler. Lonetree was convicted of espionage charges and jailed for nine years.

The restrictions were only relaxed after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

In the intervening years since then, US personnel in China had to report any intimate contact with Chinese citizens to their supervisors but were not explicitly forbidden from sexual or romantic relationships.

In presentations before being stationed in China, US personnel are briefed on case studies where Chinese intelligence services sent attractive women to seduce American diplomats and warned that dozens of Chinese state security agents can be assigned to monitor any individual diplomat of interest and try to identify their vulnerabilities, according to a report by the Associated Press.

Other countries have famously used honey traps. The exotic Dutch dancer known as Mata Hari was executed in 1917 by the French for being a German spy during World War One, although the extent to which she actually was one remains hotly contested.

In World War Two, the celebrated British author Roald Dahl essentially worked as a honey pot, in his case, he was also dubbed a 'Romeo spy' – for British intelligence. The former RAF pilot used his wit, charm and good looks in Washington DC to seduce well-connected and wealthy American women to gather intelligence and use their influence to ensure the US entered the conflict on Britain's side.

However, it was the Soviets who made the honey trap a key tool of their espionage arsenal. Their intelligence agencies, the NKVD and its KGB successor, churned out 'swallows,' as female operatives were known, and 'ravens,' as male seducers were called in such great numbers that, according to defectors, there was even a 'sparrow school' where they were trained in their dark arts.

The standard Soviet tactic was not to subtly gain information through 'pillow talk' but to employ the more brutal policy of seduction, usually filmed or recorded, followed by blackmail.

This approach was particularly suited to trapping foreigners in the Soviet bloc as they had to live in closed, heavily monitored environments where filming targets in compromising positions was relatively simple.

For all Trump's warm words about Chinese leader Xi Jinping, his administration kept a Biden era ban on US government staff in China from having any romantic or sexual relations with locals

The exotic Dutch dancer known as Mata Hari was executed in 1917 by the French for being a German spy during World War One

In addition, some of their targets were homosexuals at a time when being outed as gay would end their careers in disgrace, so blackmail was particularly effective. British embassy employee John Vassall, who was gay, was notoriously targeted by the KGB in Moscow. Lured to a party where compromising photographs were taken of him, he was 'persuaded' to pass British naval secrets to the Soviets for some seven years before he was arrested in 1962 and imprisoned.

Some of the honey traps were quite elaborate. In the late 1950s, a KGB 'swallow' seduced Maurice Dejean, the French ambassador in Moscow, and then – to compound his embarrassment – another agent posing as the jealous husband beat him up.

East Germany's ruthlessly effective spy agency, the Stasi, was particularly adept at using male honeytraps, sending good looking agents into Bonn, the West German capital, to seduce lonely secretaries working at government ministries.

In 1967, Leonore Sutterlin, a foreign minister secretary, killed herself after discovering that she was married to a Stasi agent who had wed her simply to get access to confidential papers.

Russia continued to use honey pots widely after the Soviet Union collapsed but had to move with the times – as homosexuality was decriminalized in the West and lost its social stigma, blackmail became more difficult.

China's espionage bosses have tended to steer away from blackmail with their honey traps and rely instead on their agents building long term relationships with their targets in which the latter gradually become dependent in some way on their deceiver.

The most celebrated case involving a Chinese honey trap was surely that of Shi Pei Pu and Bernard Boursicot. The former was a Peking Opera singer who conducted a 20-year affair with the latter, an employee in the French embassy in Beijing, from the 1960s to the 1980s during which he convinced the Frenchman that he was a woman.

The sexual relationship was conducted in darkness and Shi assured Boursicot he had been forced to live as a man to satisfy his father's wish to have a son. The Chinese government used the bizarre affair – which inspired the play M. Butterfly – to pressure Boursicot to hand over hundreds of secret French documents. 

While post-Soviet Russia has made extensive use of acquiring so-called 'kompromat' or blackmail material, the Chinese approach is more patient and less coercive – often taking months if not years to deliver any results, according to experts.

With Beijing, patience is a virtue. Christine Fang, a suspected Chinese intelligence agent also known as 'Fang Fang' who fled the US in 2015 after posing as a political volunteer, spent years building up her contacts with politicians in California in the early-to-mid 2010s, intelligence experts said. She once trapped former U.S. Congressman Eric Swalwell, according to FBI documents.

Swalwell admitted he had 'physical relations with fang on a handful of occasions, but never dated her or had a romantic relationship'. The FBI found no evidence of any quid pro quo in their relationship.

However, Fang was in it for the long term – homing in on politicos early in their careers by volunteering for their campaign or fundraising in the hope they would eventually rise to power. Fang was believed to be working for China's Ministry of State Security, the FBI said.

The most notorious case involving a Chinese honey trap was surely that of Bernard Boursicot, an employee in the French embassy in Beijing

Shi Pei Pu, a Peking Opera singer, conducted a 20-year affair with Boursicot during which he convinced the Frenchman that he was a woman

According to FBI documents, former U.S. Congressman Eric Swalwell, was trapped by Christine Fang, a suspected Chinese intelligence agent also known as 'Fang Fang'

The Chinese and the Russians are still honeypotting, but today's strategies reflect the digital times, often the approach is made through social media with the intelligence agencies of China and Russia flooding online platforms with fake profiles on an industrial scale. Sometimes these platforms are dating sites, say experts.

After contacting potential targets on sites such as LinkedIn where finding men in sensitive jobs takes seconds, the agent's interest will initially seem entirely innocent.

Western intelligence has said that danger signs include an unusually attractive or attentive woman who rapidly shows interest – even if couched as idle curiosity – about the target's job or colleagues.

Other red flags include pressure from the woman to meet up, advance a relationship very fast or to ask their target to be secret about it. They may well be generous about giving gifts and granting favors, a ploy to create a sense of obligation in the man.

This appealing new female friend may also be curiously keen to encourage their target to drink heavily or break rules. Encouraging such habits, of course, may make them more liable to pass on confidential information.

Economic targets are often invited to China for conferences, on business delegations or 'friendship' visits. There, they are treated like visiting VIPs with banquets, karaoke parties and endless attention.

Britain's MI5 addressed the threat to the UK government and military personnel, as well as workers in key industries, earlier this year in a 'Think Before You Link' campaign. MI5 has specifically warned British businessmen in the past to avoid encounters in Chinese hotel rooms and accepting gifts.

As the relationship develops, the victim may not even realize they are being asked to become a spy. Their seducer may pepper them with gentle, non-intrusive questions – pretending to be interested in their work just because they want to be friendly. 

However, as the two parties become closer, the requests will become more searching and compromising – but by that time, hopefully, the target is emotionally invested in the agent and will find it much harder to say no. Blackmail is held in reserve by Chinese intelligence services, say experts, for use if all else fails.

It remains to be seen how Alice Huang first met Jensen Huang but he has learned the hard way that it probably wasn't his cool dude persona that drew her to him. 

• Nvidia's shares were down roughly 8 per cent in after-hours trading on Wednesday. Nvidia has lost about $600 billion in ​stock market value this week.