US diplomats in China banned from dating or having sex with Chinese citizens

Looks like yet another classic spy story is getting rebooted.

No, its not a certain secret agent trapped in the Amazon, its a real life rehash of a popular Cold War era trope: United States government personnel have been banned from any “romantic or sexual relationships with Chinese citizens” as of January 2025.

Honey pots

The Associated Press (AP) reported that the outgoing Biden administration ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns, had implemented the rule just before they left the country.

The rules ban U.S. government personnel, their families, as well as contractors with security clearances from any romantic or sexual relationships with Chinese citizens.

This is an extension of previous rules that banned such personnel from forming relationships with Chinese citizens working as guards or support staff within the U.S. Embassy in Beijing or its five other consulates in the country.

The ban reflects growing tensions between the U.S. and China, with the U.S. apparently concerned that China’s intelligence agencies might be using “honeypots” to gain access to classified U.S. intelligence.

AP reports that U.S. personnel are shown case studies of such previous incidents and that China’s state security agencies are known to monitor individual diplomats with “dozens” of agents.

Relationships between U.S. personnel in China and Chinese citizens were not previously restricted, but personnel were required to report any “intimate relations”.

Not just spy stories

Such bans were present during the Cold War, in China as well as in the USSR and Cuba, with the AP reporting of an incident in 1991 involving a U.S. marine and a Soviet spy.

It further reports that at the present moment, there have been two known cases of such incidents occurring in China, although none are known to have taken place recently.

A former CIA analyst that the AP spoke to further warned that a Chinese citizen in a relationship with a U.S. diplomat might be coerced into gathering information through threats or intimidation.

The analyst suggested that the rule change might mean that China’s Ministry of State Security was being “a lot more aggressive” at trying to gather intelligence from U.S. personnel.

U.S. diplomats have commonly entered into relationships with non-U.S. citizens where they were stationed and, as the AP states, sometimes even married them.

Such concerns are reciprocated on China’s side.

In recent years, China has enforced a ban on promotions for civil servants married to individuals who have or have acquired foreign citizenship, and China’s diplomats are barred from relationships with foreign nationals.

Top image via Unsplash & made-in-china.com