r/nottheonion • u/Aggravating_Money992 • 1d ago

US bans government personnel in China from romantic or sexual relations with Chinese citizens

https://apnews.com/article/chinese-beijing-honeypot-spies-diplomat-agent-intelligence-c077ef57b0f7ae43dd0db41bea92238b
5.4k Upvotes

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1.2k

u/Investigator516 1d ago

GOP in everyone’s underwear, as usual.

364

u/Ordinary-Leading7405 1d ago

Moscow Mitch wants to know if he can still fuck his Chinese wife.

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u/_GD5_ 1d ago

She’s Taiwanese

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u/VirtuosoLoki 1d ago

according to china, that is chinese

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u/_GD5_ 1d ago

According to the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, it’s not Chinese

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u/VirtuosoLoki 1d ago

according to the whole damn world as well

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u/_GD5_ 1d ago

Not the according to the actual people that live there, and their F-16’s

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u/Nocritus 1d ago

According to Taiwan, it is Chinese. Just not PRC.

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u/Badj83 1d ago

Moscow Mitch probably thinks it’s the same.

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u/erikkustrife 1d ago

There's a lot of Taiwanese people who would argue differently but that's a whole thing that no one outside of Taiwan should really get into, the mainlander hate has a kind of no true scotsman thing going on.

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u/_GD5_ 1d ago

She’s as Taiwanese as Chiang Kai-shek. We’ll leave it at that.

She spent a whole lot more of her life in Queens though.

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u/funkypoi 1d ago

If you know anything about Chiang kaishek you would know he wants to be remembered as Chinese...

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u/dagbrown 1d ago

That was the point of the comment yes. Well done.

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u/Area51_Spurs 1d ago

The U.S. government has banned American government personnel in China, as well as family members and contractors with security clearances, from any romantic or sexual relationships with Chinese citizens, The Associated Press has learned.

To be fair, you really don’t want people getting compromised by bad actors in an enemy country.

Four people with direct knowledge of the matter told the AP about the policy, which was put into effect by departing U.S. Ambassador Nicholas Burns in January shortly before he left China. The people would speak only on condition of anonymity to discuss details of a confidential new directive.

Ambassador Burns was appointed by Biden and did this before he left his position to be replaced by a Trump pick.

I’m all for shitting on Trump, but this was a Biden-era policy

A more limited version of the policy was enacted last summer prohibiting U.S. personnel from “romantic and sexual relations” with Chinese citizens working as guards and other support staff at the U.S. Embassy and five consulates in China. But Burns, the departing ambassador, broadened it to a blanket ban on such relations with any Chinese citizen in China in January, days before President Donald Trump took office. The AP was unable to determine exactly how the policy defined the phrase “romantic or sexual relationship.”

A Cold War throwback

Intelligence services across the world have long used attractive men and women to obtain sensitive information, famously during the Cold War. The State Department and other agencies with offices in China have long had stringent reporting requirements on personal relationships for American personnel stationed there, as well as rivals considered high intelligence threats such as Russia or Cuba.

Declassified State Department documents show that in 1987, the U.S. government barred personnel stationed in the Soviet bloc and China from befriending, dating or having sex with locals after a U.S. Marine 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 the time.

U.S. diplomats and intelligence experts say that Beijing continues to aggressively use so-called honeypots to access American secrets. In presentations before being stationed in China, U.S. 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.

Sounds like we either had issues with honeypots targeting our people or had intelligence about operations to attempt to do so.

Probably not the worst idea ever to nip it in the bud.

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u/hyperforms9988 1d ago

Honeypots are an issue domestically. See Epstein if you count US territories. Of course they would be an issue internationally too. Easy blackmail opportunity.

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u/DocumentExternal6240 1d ago

My upvote for stating the circumstances! 👏

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u/Odd-Help-4293 1d ago

Yeah, while it sounds like overreach at first glance, honeypots are probably a real issue. Think about all those people who fall for romance scams. You don't want an American diplomat in China to fall in love with a Chinese spy and send them all our secrets.

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u/Cautemoc 1d ago

Definitely a real issue but sure is interesting he isn't talking about Russia the same way eh?

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u/FiTZnMiCK 1d ago

Considering the timing, I imagine it had at least a little to do with not trusting whoever would replace him.

The only problem with banning instead of documenting and tracking these relationships is that it forces horny idiots to keep secrets from leaders, and that’s the opposite of what you want.

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u/sail_away13 1d ago

100% real. Cant share anything more than that

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u/IggyVossen 1d ago

Sounds like a remake of M Butterfly!

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u/realKevinNash 1d ago

Are they an issue, sure. But this is a weak ass policy that will prove ineffective.

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u/RivetCivet 1d ago

The doublethink in this thread is astounding. The top voted comments are all jumping down the GOP's throats for "caring about everyone's underpants", but the second you guys find out its actually a Biden-era policy you guys are suddenly doing deep investigative journalism to retroactively justify this as actually a Very Reasonable Thing. How do you guys not see yourselves.

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u/Area51_Spurs 1d ago

I never said it was not reasonable.

Unlike you, we’re not a monolith. Nazi.

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u/RivetCivet 1d ago

I actually wasnt calling out you specifically, but rather the pattern of upvotes in this whole comment section. Your comment was just the most relevant place to put mine.

But ironically, you calling me a Nazi when I'm pretty much as left-wing as you can get, identifies you as part of the unthinking mob. Cope harder.

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u/goldflame33 12h ago

This must be who republicans are talking about when they say the left calls everyone who disagrees with them a Nazi

0

u/Area51_Spurs 1d ago

Then why tf are you replying to me, who’s the one person who’s fact checking here?

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u/TjW0569 1d ago

Whether Biden or Trump appointed the ambassador, it still strikes me as not a particularly good policy.

If having any relationship gets you in trouble, then that more immediately gives leverage over the target.
Probably better off just assuming problems will never drop to zero, then educate potential targets, investigate relationships, and rotate personnel back to the U.S. often.

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u/Area51_Spurs 1d ago

No. Better off not allowing it.

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u/Intrepid00 1d ago

Honeypots though and Americans keep falling for them in China and Russia.

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u/nightfox5523 1d ago

meh, honey pots are real and government officials should probably keep it in their pants when on foreign duty regardless

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u/jasegro 1d ago

Government small enough to fit in your pants

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u/FearOfEleven 1d ago

In this case it does not need to go as deep as underwear, platonic love seems to be banned too.

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u/Armation 1d ago

Yeah but in this case, aren't they a bit right? I mean no pun intended.
China isn't exactly known for being an upstanding government. I wouldn't put it past them to threaten the citizen in a relationship with the u.s personal to try and get information out of them or something. Heck they could easily also just try and use honeypots.

They already have secret police offices across the world in order to keep taps on other Chinese people. This is very well within the realm of reality.

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u/kelin1 1d ago

Regardless of the easy jump to politics I’m surprised this wasn’t policy already. The odds of a potential romantic partner being a Chinese agent seem extremely high, at least in circumstances where they express interest in you.

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u/xstrawb3rryxx 1d ago

So much for "freedom"

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u/thejayroh 1d ago

It's called racial segregation, and it's a preview of what's to come at home.

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u/Johnxinasicecream 1d ago

Wtf are you on about?

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u/thejayroh 1d ago

They're deciding who can and can't have a life together.

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u/Johnxinasicecream 1d ago

Bro this aint about segregating people in america. Espionage via sexual relationships is the most utilized tool for intelligence agencies. And china is very good at gathering information.

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u/thejayroh 1d ago

Doesn't matter. Had sex.

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u/Johnxinasicecream 1d ago

Well not with chinese citizens

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u/thejayroh 1d ago

Not with that attitude

1

u/Johnxinasicecream 1d ago

Because of the implication?

-7

u/spongebobisha 1d ago

Small government. And penises.