Investigation: How Chinese and Russian Women Are Sent to Seduce and Spy on Tech Professionals
U.S. intelligence experts warn that China and Russia operate spy networks relying on seduction and fake relationships with American tech professionals.
An investigation by The Times reveals how this new-old espionage war is conducted through LinkedIn, startup competitions, and foreign investments.
A senior intelligence officer at a consulting firm that provides risk assessments for American companies investing in China said he recently became the focus of attention from women whose role was to spy on American tech professionals.
“Recently I started receiving a large number of very sophisticated LinkedIn connection requests from the same type of young, attractive Chinese women,” he said.
At the same time, he revealed that while attending a conference on investment risks in China held last week in Virginia, two attractive Chinese women attempted to enter the event.
“They did not pass security at the entrance, but they had complete information about the conference and participants, which was very strange.”
The officer, who has been studying espionage in the U.S. for three decades, describes the “honeytrap” phenomenon as a real threat to the United States.
“We Americans, legally and culturally, do not do things like this, so they (the Chinese and Russians) have an asymmetric advantage when it comes to this type of ‘sex war’.”
Not a KGB agent, but an investor or academic
According to five intelligence experts who spoke to the newspaper, this “sex war” is only one method through which China and Russia exploit American tech professionals.
At the same time, China regularly organizes startup competitions in the U.S. aimed at stealing sensitive business plans.
Experts say Beijing also tries to sabotage American companies’ operations.
Unlike the old image of a secret agent in a long coat, today Russia and China use citizens investors, business and academics to infiltrate the U.S. innovation and tech sector.
“We are no longer chasing mysterious KGB agents sitting in smoke-filled pubs,” said a senior intelligence official.
“Our rivals, especially the Chinese, use a social engineering approach to infiltrate and spy on Western talent and knowledge.”
Just in February, the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee warned that the Chinese Communist Party is responsible for more than 60 major espionage cases in the U.S. over the past four years, but experts estimate this is only the tip of the iceberg.
A lifelong espionage operation
A former senior official at a U.S. intelligence agency, who now helps Silicon Valley startup founders avoid foreign investments, described a case where he investigated a very pretty woman from aerospace company who married an American.
After suspicion arose that something was wrong with her behavior, she was investigated and it was revealed that in her twenties, while living in Russia, she studied at a modeling academy, then attended a “soft power” school, disappeared for a decade and finally reappeared in the U.S. as a “digital currency expert.”
“Despite her profession, she did not remain in crypto for long,” said the official. “She quickly began efforts to infiltrate the U.S. aerospace community deeply, and she did not hesitate to use any means to do so. All this while her American husband suspected nothing.”
“This is a real method arriving in the U.S., marrying a target, even having children, while simultaneously conducting a lifelong intelligence-gathering operation. It is very unsettling to think about, but it is very common,” the official said.
The cost of secrets.
The U.S. Committee on the Prevention of Intellectual Property Theft estimates that stealing trade secrets costs American taxpayers as much as 600 billion dollars annually, with China seen as the primary culprit. In one instance in 2023, a Chinese national tried to sell Tesla’s stolen intellectual property to undercover agents at a conference in Las Vegas for around 15 million dollars. He received a two-year prison sentence last December, while his alleged accomplice, also from China, remains free.
The two men, former employees of a Canadian manufacturing company acquired by Tesla in 2019, used the stolen trade secrets to start a competing business in China.
According to the prosecution, one of them bragged to his partner that he had “many original documents” related to Tesla battery technology.
At the same time, the U.S. government regularly warns startups in the country against participating in international “idea pitch” competitions organized by Chinese entities.
In these competitions, founders present their ideas to Chinese investors and winners receive cash prizes and investments but on the condition that they transfer their intellectual property to China and establish business operations there.
Some competitions require entrepreneurs to provide their business strategy, intellectual property, and sometimes personal data and photos in advance to Chinese officials.
“This is a real intelligence risk,” warned a senior U.S. official.
The most vulnerable population, he said, is young academics and entrepreneurs those dreaming of building a successful business and gaining recognition.
“They assess how they can exploit you later, or simply take your idea, use it, patent it, and steal your economic future,” he said.
One competition that worries U.S. authorities is the Ninth International Innovation Competition in China, recently held in cities such as Boston, London, and Tokyo.
A Silicon Valley biotech CEO who participated last year told The Times that he had to wear a microphone throughout the event and was monitored by Chinese officials. “They recorded every word I said, every action I took, while government representatives sat behind and watched the competition,” he said.
His company won a $50,000 prize at the same competition, but to his surprise, he found that the money was transferred to his personal account, not the company’s account. “It was very strange,” he said. He added that participating in the competition made him a target in the eyes of U.S. authorities. Earlier this year, the government froze federal funding for his company, and he had to dismantle its operations. “I suspect it happened because we revealed that we have Asian investors,” he said.
“The new version of the Chinese game”
According to the consulting officer, this is a deliberate tactic: Chinese venture capital investors focus on startups that received funding from the U.S. Department of Defense, investing in later stages. “The foreign ownership percentage exceeds the threshold that allows the Department of Defense to invest, thereby preventing the government from accessing innovation and intellectual property,” he explained. “This is the new version of the Chinese game. I call it ‘drafting’.”
Last May, the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship determined that six of the 25 largest recipients of federal funding in the Small Business Innovation Research program had “clear connections” to China, even though they together received nearly $180 million from the Pentagon in 2023-2024.
The most vulnerable population is young academics and entrepreneurs those dreaming of building a successful business
A security researcher and former U.S. government China analyst said that much of Chinese activity is not necessarily illegal.
“They simply exploit the weaknesses of the American system.
The Chinese understand our method and know how to work within it almost all the time with little punishment,” he told The Times.
“It is truly the Wild West out there,” he concluded.
“China targets our startups, our academic institutions, our innovators, Pentagon-funded projects, but there is not enough oversight and response.
It is all part of China’s economic warfare strategy, and we on the other side have not even entered the battlefield yet.”