PRC Embassy, Malaysia Warning

This is strictly in the counterintelligence, counterterrorism realm, but current and interesting.  On 29 September the Economic and Commercial Section of the Chinese Embassy, Malaysia issued an advisory (above) to Chinese businesses in that country.  It is entitled "Notice to Chinese enterprises in Malaysia on strengthening safety precaution work."

It advises Chinese businesses to set up 24-hour response mechanisms for emergencies due to the continuing problem of terrorist attacks and kidnappings occurring "one after another" throughout the world. 

The advisory contains nothing contradicting known problems in Malaysia, especially warnings from OSAC.com about ISIL operatives in Malaysia, and the speedboat kidnappings along the Malaysian coast opposite the Philippines that have been going on for years.  Kidnappings of Chinese businesspeople in all parts of Southeast Asia is, of course, a longstanding problem. 

The PRC embassy's warning is very general in nature, and may leave Chinese businesses a bit confused about why it was issued and what they should do.  Like other government warnings, it is probably based on a known problem, left unstated.

Any comments on whether the PRC Ministry of Foreign Affairs issues other more specific advice to PRC businesses overseas? 

China and the Honey Trap

The honey trap—using a sexually attractive person to snare a target—features prominently in popular literature, from James Bond books and movies to the novels of Adam Brookes, Alan Furst and David Cornwell (John le Carré), the current television series The Americans, and a recent Chinese anti-spy campaign (illustration above).[1]  But how much of an issue is it for visitors to China?

In short, it’s a problem, though the Chinese side denies it.  

A Brief History of the Honey Trap in China

The honey trap, or “beautiful person plan” (美人计, meiren ji) is an ancient tactic, number 31 among the “36 Stratagems” from The Art of War.[2]  As one prominent author points out, “sexual entrapment was terrifyingly effective” during the Chinese revolution.[3]

Then came the puritanical communist government of Mao Zedong.  After 1949, People’s Republic of China (PRC) security agencies were formally forbidden to use the honey trap, at least in China, partly because the new regime placed an emphasis on eradicating prostitution—plus the tactic was ill-suited for use by communist police cadres who were naïve about city life.  Chinese intelligence and security officials allegedly were repulsed by their KGB comrades’ enthusiastic advocacy of the honey trap.  In the 1960s and 70s, restrictions expanded to ban any and all use of female agents by male officers, to avoid even the mildest temptation.[4] 

However, things loosened up as Chinese cadres became more sophisticated and the PRC opened up to the outside world.  In a case made famous by the play and film M. Butterfly and the book Liaison,[5] the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) exploited a forbidden sexual relationship to blackmail the French diplomat Bernard Boursicot in Beijing.

Coincidentally, while Boursicot was courting the object of his affections, Minister of Public Security Xie Fuzhi briefed Premier Zhou Enlai on 3 September 1964 about current operations—at that time, his ministry had responsibility for all counterespionage operations on Chinese soil.  The details of the meeting remain secret, but a public record says that Zhou reacted to one of Minister Xie’s briefings by insisting, “When carrying out investigations, we must resolutely oppose the use of the “honey trap.”[6]  It was a tantalizing reference that might indicate Beijing Public Security was on to Boursicot’s then developing romance with the Beijing opera star Shi Peipu (时佩璞; thanks to Anonymous for correcting the name), and was preparing to take advantage of it, even if they had not created an entrapment scenario.

The Honey Trap in China Today

China’s opening to the outside world in the 1980s completely changed the picture.

By the 1990s, prostitution was commonplace and rumored to enjoy the protection of local officials.  Overseas, the controversial Parlor Maid case[7] of the 1990s featured alleged sexual persuasion targeting FBI agents, and other cases arose in Japan in 2006.  The honey trap appears also to be employed against China by their opponents on Taiwan, just as the Taiwan services have used it against their American ally.[8]

In recent years, foreigners in China regularly report heterosexual and homosexual approaches that appear to carry the risk of blackmail.[9]  Diplomats and other officials are routinely targeted,[10] and US companies, including at least one major technology firm, have not been spared.[11]  

More Specifics

A former security official in Tianjin, Hao Fengjun, told Taiwanese press that Chinese intelligence services periodically sweep brothels and karaoke parlors to trap foreign officials and businessmen.[12]  A notable example: a Japanese communications clerk in Shanghai committed suicide in May 2004 after being blackmailed by Chinese intelligence, probably the Shanghai State Security Bureau, because of his relationship with a prostitute.[13]

Train Your Travellers

Chinese sources routinely deny these claims[14] and hint at the prohibitions of yesteryear—all the more reason to emphasize in training for business travelers, expats and others visiting China that the honey trap problem remains persistent.

Thanks to Peter Mattis and others for their reviews and comments on this piece.

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[1] Didi Kirsten Tatlow, “China’s ‘Dangerous Love’ Campaign, Warning of Spies, Is Met With Shrugs”  (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/22/world/asia/china-foreign-spy-warning.html)

[2] John Barkai, “The 36 Chinese Strategies Applied to Negotiation” in Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal , No. 403, 2008.

[3] Michael Schoenhals, Spying for the People, Mao’s Secret Agents, 1949-1967 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), pp. 101-109.  

[4] Ibid.

[5] Joyce Wadler, Liaison: the real story of the affair that inspired M. Butterfly (New York: Penguin Books, 1994).  The play and film: Hwang, David Henry, M Butterfly (New York: Penguin, 1989). M Butterfly. Dir. David Cronenburg. Perfs: Jeremy Irons, John Lone, and Ian Richardson. Geffen Pictures and Warner Brothers, 1993.

[6] Zhonggong zhongyang wenxian yanjiushi, ed., Zhou Enlai nianpu, 1949-1976, zhong [The Annals of Zhou Enlai, 1949-1976, vol. 2] (Beijing: Zhongyang Wenxian Chubanshe, 1997), p. 666, and Schoenhals, p. 109.  Joyce Wadler, “Shi Beipu, Singer, dies at 70” in The New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/02/world/asia/02shi.html?_r=1, July 2, 2009)

[7] PBS Frontline, “The Parlor Maid Case,” at pbs.org

[8] Julian Ryall, “Chinese hostesses catch Japanese high-tech executives in honey trap,” (http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1336808/chinese-hostesses-catch-japanese-hi-tech-executives-honey-trap) 22 October 2013.  Lee Ferran, “Chinese official caught in foreign spy’s honeytrap?” (http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/chinese-official-caught-foreign-spys-honeytrap/story?id=13925539 June 25, 2011), and  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/8599565/Chinese-minister-was-caught-in-a-Honeytrap.html.  As an internet search will show, these citations only scratch the surface.  See also US Department of Justice, “Ex-State Department Official Sentenced in Classified Info Case,” in US Department of State Archive, 22 January 2007, at 2001-2009.state.gov

[9] Interviews, September 2016; Daniel Baldino, Democratic Oversight of Intelligence Systems (Federation Press, 2010), pp. 162, 178-80.

[10] Hiroto Nakata, “China slammed over cryptographer honey trap suicide,” in The Japan Times, April 1, 2006, at japantimes.co.jp   Andrew Porter, “Downing Street aide in Chinese “honeytrap” sting” in The Telegraph, 20 July 2008, at telegraph.co.uk and mirror.co.uk, 1 November 2015.

[11] Interview, September 2016.

[12] Peter Mattis, “Five Ways China Spies,” The National Interest, March 6, 2014.

[13] Justin McCurry, “Japan Says Diplomat’s Suicide Followed Blackmail,” The Guardian, December 29, 2005. <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/dec/29/japan.china>

[14] Jason Subler, “China rejects report on Brown aide “honeytrap” at http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-china-britain-honeytrap-idUKPEK26704420080721

Echoes of Mao in Modern Chinese Intelligence Operations

 Mao Zedong: the Real Architect of Chinese Communist Intelligence

Chinese traitors spying for the US on PRC industrial production; from an educational comic book (1955) 

Today is the 40th anniversary of the passing of Mao Zedong, who led the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to its 1949 victory and ruled the People's Republic until his death in 1976.

Mao left many legacies, but perhaps the least discussed is his heavy influence on Chinese communist intelligence, police, and security work, and the ways it carries over to the present day.

Mao was not the founder of the CCP intelligence and security apparatus, but he was its most influential architect.*

Echoes today from the era of Mao include:

- the use of standard espionage techniques, originally inspired by the Russians, in conducting operations (not the so-called "grains of sand" approach);
- reliance on Marxist orthodoxy in intelligence analysis;
- a regular search for enemies within, possibly including quotas in the harvest;
- the assumed suspicion, until proven otherwise, of foreigners on Chinese soil;
- gross over-classification of mundane data, placing ordinary foreign business activity at risk of prosecution;
- and the tragic use of torture by security forces to accomplish truthful interrogation results, in spite of official denials.

An under-studied but vital question: has PRC intelligence analysis gone beyond orthodoxy and moved closer to objective consideration of intelligence information?  

* In its early days (1926-1935), Zhou Enlai founded and guided the apparatus.  But when the CCP's first effective intelligence organ, the Special Services Section (中央特科, Zhongyang Teke, 1927-35), was abolished during the Long March, Mao was the Party's ascendant, albeit not yet fully dominant, leader.  By the time "Mao Zedong Thought" was enshrined as orthodoxy in 1945, Mao firmly controlled all CCP intelligence and police functions, approving all leadership changes, major policies, and reorganizations.