It sounds like a Cold War thriller, but U.S. intelligence officials say it’s happening in plain sight.
A Times of London investigation has revealed that Chinese and Russian intelligence agencies are using women posing as investors, academics, and even romantic partners to infiltrate America’s tech sector.
The operation, nicknamed “honeytrap espionage,” is spreading through digital channels such as LinkedIn and startup competitions.
Intelligence experts warn that this new form of “social espionage” is more subtle and more dangerous than traditional spying, exploiting ambition, loneliness, and opportunity in equal measure.
James Mulvenon, chief intelligence officer at Pamir Consulting, told The Times that he has personally been targeted. “Lately I’ve been receiving a huge number of highly sophisticated connection requests on LinkedIn — all from the same type of young, attractive Chinese women,” he said.
He described how two women tried to infiltrate an investment-risk conference in Virginia armed with detailed profiles of attendees. “They didn’t get past security,” he said, “but they knew everything about the event. It was very strange.”
Mulvenon called this “sex warfare,” noting that cultural norms and legal boundaries leave the United States at a disadvantage.
“We Americans don’t do this kind of thing,” he said. “That gives the Chinese and Russians an asymmetric edge.”
According to five U.S. intelligence officials interviewed for the report, sexual entrapment is only one piece of a broader strategy. Beijing and Moscow are running sophisticated recruitment networks through startup contests, venture capital deals, and academic exchanges.
The goal is to gain access to business plans, patents, and defense-linked research before it matures into military-grade technology.
China, in particular, has been accused of turning “innovation competitions” into large-scale data harvesting operations. One such event — the Ninth International Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition — was held in Boston, London, and Tokyo.
A Silicon Valley biotech founder said that Chinese organizers filmed and recorded everything he said during his pitch. “They even wired the prize money to my personal account, not the company’s,” he said. Weeks later, U.S. authorities froze his federal funding.
The report also detailed more traditional spycraft with a modern twist. A former intelligence officer recounted the case of a Russian woman who allegedly married an American aerospace engineer while secretly working for Moscow.
“She was stunning, educated in aviation, and no one suspected a thing,” he said. Investigators later found she had trained at a Russian modeling academy and a ‘soft power’ school before arriving in the U.S. as a cryptocurrency expert.
“She married her target, had children, and spent years collecting intelligence — it was a lifelong mission.”
The U.S. Commission on Intellectual Property Theft estimates that trade secret theft costs the U.S. economy up to $600 billion a year, most of it tied to Chinese actors.
Recent cases include a Chinese national caught trying to sell Tesla trade secrets to undercover agents for $15 million. Both he and his partner had worked for a Tesla supplier before launching a rival firm in China.
Jeff Stoff, a former U.S. government China analyst, said Beijing’s approach is often “technically legal.” “They’re exploiting our system,” he explained. “They study how our rules work and operate right up to the line — almost without consequences.”
The scale of infiltration is staggering. The U.S. House Homeland Security Committee reported that the Chinese Communist Party was responsible for more than 60 major espionage cases in the past four years, but officials believe that’s only a fraction of the true number.
Mulvenon said the modern battlefield is no longer fought with guns and bombs but with data, seduction, and dollars.
“The Chinese call it ‘drafting’ — they invest in startups with Pentagon funding to gain control and shut down defense ties,” he said.
“They’re not just stealing secrets; they’re hijacking the future of American innovation.”
As one intelligence veteran summed it up: “We’re not chasing spies in trench coats anymore. They’re influencers, investors, and CEOs — and they’re already inside the building.”
