China foils foreign spy plots including a ‘honey trap’, urges govt workers to stay vigilant

BEIJING – China has urged government workers to stay vigilant after it cracked three spying plots, including one in which a public servant was lured by the “seductive beauty” of a foreign agent.

Beijing has stepped up espionage warnings in recent years as ties with the US and other Western nations have worsened.

The Chinese Ministry of State Security on July 10 said foreign spooks have been “increasingly active in infiltrating and stealing secrets from China” and were targeting public officials.

The ministry said: “Individual officials have caused the damaging effects of leaking secrets due to a lack of belief, weakened sense of discipline and loosened awareness of rules... harming national security and interests.”

It described a case in which a provincial government employee surnamed Li fell into a “meticulously designed honey trap” while travelling overseas for work.

“Unable to resist the seductive beauty of the foreign intelligence agent”, Li was then blackmailed with “intimate photos” and forced to hand over official documents once back in China.

He was sentenced to five years’ jail for espionage, according to the statement.

Another case involved a municipal cadre called Hou who had secretly photographed confidential documents and sold them to foreign spy agencies to recover lost savings from a gambling addiction.

Hou was later held “criminally responsible”, the ministry said without specifying his punishment.

The ministry also detailed a third case in which a high-flying young official lost his job after sharing confidential information with a relative who photographed the data and sent it to overseas spy agencies.

“Leaks are often hidden in the small details of our work lives,” the ministry said.

“If our ideals and beliefs are not strong... they may eventually plummet into the criminal abyss designed by foreign spy agencies.”

China’s spy agency did not name the countries alleged to be behind the plots.

Asked which countries were involved by AFP at a regular briefing on July 10, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said she was “not familiar with this issue”.

Beijing and Washington have long traded accusations of espionage, which is punishable by death in China.

In June 2025, Beijing accused the US Central Intelligence Agency of an “absurd” attempt to recruit Chinese citizens via amateurish videos posted on social media.

In April 2025, Chinese security officials said they had implicated

three US “secret agents”

in cyber attacks during February’s Asian Winter Games in the north-eastern city of Harbin.

The Ministry of State Security also said in March it had

sentenced to death a former engineer

for leaking state secrets to a foreign power. AFP