WASHINGTON (AP) – The US government has forbidden US government employees in China, as well as family members and contractors with security declarations, of all romantic or sexual relationships with Chinese citizens, has learned the Associated Press.
Four people with direct knowledge of the case told the AP about the policy that was implemented by leaving the American ambassador Nicholas Burns in January shortly before he left China. People would only speak on condition of anonymity to discuss details of a confidential new directive.
Although some American agencies already had strict rules for such relationships, a general “non -fraternisation” policy, as it is known, has been unheard of since the Cold War. It is not uncommon for American diplomats in other countries to date the locals and even getting married.
A more limited version of the policy was established last summer that prohibited our staff from “romantic and sexual relationships” with Chinese citizens who work as guards and other support staff at the US embassy and five consulates in China. But Burns, the departing ambassador, broadened it to a general ban on such relations with a Chinese citizen in China in January, days before President Donald Trump took place. The AP could not determine exactly how the policy defined the expression “romantic or sexual relationship”.
Two of the people with knowledge of the ban said the AP that the new policy was first discussed last summer after members of the congress contacted Burns to express their concern that restrictions on such relationships were not strict enough. The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party did not respond to a request for comment.
The new policy includes American missions on mainland China, including the embassy in Beijing and consulates in Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenyang and Wuhan, as well as the American consulate in the semi-autonomous territory of Hong Kong. It does not apply to American staff stationed outside China.
The only exception to policy is American staff with existing relationships with Chinese citizens; They can request exemptions. If the exemption is refused, they must end the relationship or leave their position, the people said. Anyone who violates the policy becomes Dearness on Dearness to leave China immediately.
The policy was reported verbally and electronically to American staff in China in January, but was not publicly announced.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it does not comment on internal affairs. The National Security Council referred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Burns, the former ambassador, did not respond to an AP request that was sent to his e -mail address at the Cohen Group, a consultancy firm that he was added to VICE chairman in February.
A return of the Cold War
Intelligence services around the world have used attractive men and women for a long time to obtain sensitive information, famous during the Cold War. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other agencies with offices in China have long had strict reporting requirements for personal relationships for American staff stationed there, as well as rivals considered threats of high intelligence such as Russia or Cuba.
Documents from the Ministry of mention show that in 1987 the American government stationed staff that was stationed in the Soviet block and China by making friends, dating or having sex with the local population after an American navy in Moscow was seduced by a Soviet spy. Such restrictions were relaxed after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, according to news reports at that time.
In China, a general ban on such relationships has not been in force for many years. Until the new ban in January, American staff in China had to report some intimate contact with Chinese citizens to their supervisors, but they were not explicitly forbidden for sexual or romantic relationships.
American diplomats and intelligence experts say that Beijing continues to use so-called honeypots to gain access to American secrets. In presentations Before they are stationed in China, American staff are informed about case studies in which Chinese intelligence services sent attractive women to seduce American diplomats, and warned that dozens of Chinese state security agents can be assigned to check any individual interest diplomat.
Little is known about the non-fraternization policy of the US government elsewhere, because they are considered classified. It is unknown how restrictive such a policy is in other countries.
Rising voltages, stricter controls
In recent years, tensions between Washington and Beijing have escalated about trade, technology and geopolitical competition.
Peter Mattis, a former CIA analyst and president of the Jamestown Foundation, a think tank, which was established in Washington, said that there were at least two published cases in which Chinese agents seduced American diplomats stationed in China, although he has never heard of such a matter in recent years.
Mattis added that another problem is that Chinese state security does not collect intelligence only through spies, but also by pressing ordinary Chinese on information, often through threats or intimidation. That, Mattis said, means that every Chinese citizen who dates an American diplomat can be vulnerable to coercion.
“The MSS is willing to use every human connection to collect a target,” said Mattis, with the help of an acronym that refers to the Chinese Ministry of State Security. “This change in the rule suggests that the MSS has become much more aggressive in trying to gain access to the embassy and the US government.”
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not comment on the ban and said in a faxed statement that it was “more suitable to ask the US about this question.”
China has also tightened the strict controls on its staff abroad, according to Chinese regulations, news items and four people who are familiar with China's bureaucracy that spoke on condition of anonymity so that they could discuss a sensitive subject. In recent years, Beijing was strictly maintained to maintain regulations that Bar promotions for Chinese officials with spouses who acquired foreign citizenship and diplomats limited to spend a longer period in one country, which meant some to return to China.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and many other government agencies prohibit their officials and staff of sexual or romantic relations with foreign citizens, while members of the Chinese army or police are generally not allowed to leave China completely without the express approval of their supervisors.
___
Kang reported Van Beijing.
