The United States prohibits government staff in China from relations with Chinese citizens

By Dake Kang, Matthew Lee and Didi Tang, Associated Press

Washington (AP) – The US government has banned US government staff in China, as well as family members and entrepreneurs with security authorizations, any romantic or sexual relationship with Chinese citizens, the Associated Press learned.

Four people with direct knowledge of the case told the police, who was put into force by leaving the American ambassador Nicholas Burns in January shortly before leaving China. The people only spoke under the cover of anonymity to discuss the details of a new confidential directive.

Although some US agencies already have strict rules on such relations, a policy of “non-fierce” covered, as we know, has been unknown publicly since the Cold War. It is not uncommon for American diplomats in other countries to date residents and even marry them.

A more limited version of politics was promulgated last summer, prohibiting American personnel from “romantic and sexual relations” with Chinese citizens working as guards and other members of the United States Embassy support and five consulates in China. But Burns, the initial ambassador, widened it to a general ban on these relations with any Chinese citizen in China in January, a few days before President Donald Trump took office. The AP could not determine exactly how politics defined the expression “romantic or sexual relationship”.

Two of the people who know the ban declared to the AP that the new policy was discussed for the first time last summer after members of the congress contacted Burns to express their concern that restrictions on such relationships were not strict enough. The restricted committee of the Chinese Communist Party House did not respond to a request for comments.

The new policy covers American missions in continental China, including the Embassy of Beijing and Consulate in Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenyang and Wuhan, as well as the American consulate in the semi-autonomous territory of Hong Kong. It does not apply to American staff parked outside China.

The only exception to politics is American staff with pre -existing relations with Chinese citizens; They can request exemptions. If the exemption is refused, they must end the relationship or leave their position, people said. Anyone who violates politics will be condemned to leave China immediately.

The policy was communicated verbally and electronically to American staff in China in January, but was not announced publicly.

The State Department said that it does not comment on internal questions. The National Security Council referred questions to the State Department. Burns, the former ambassador, did not respond to a request after sent to his email address to the Cohen group, a council he joined as vice-president in February.

A return of the Cold War

Intelligence services around the world have long used attractive men and women to obtain sensitive information, famous during the Cold War. The State Department and other agencies with offices in China have long had strict reports on personal relations for parked American staff, as well as competitors considered as high intelligence threats such as Russia or Cuba.

The declassified documents of the State Department show that in 1987, the US government prohibited the parked staff in the Soviet block and China to befriend, attend or have sex with the inhabitants after a American sailor in Moscow was seduced by a Soviet spy. These restrictions were softened after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, according to reports at the time.

In China, a general ban on these relationships has not been in force for many years. Until the new ban on January, American staff in China had to report any intimate contact with Chinese citizens to their supervisors, but were not explicitly banned from sexual or romantic relations.

American diplomats and intelligence experts say Beijing continues to aggressively using honey points so -called American secrets. In presentations before being posted in China, American staff are informed of case studies where Chinese intelligence services have sent attractive women to seduce American diplomats and have warned that dozens of Chinese state security agents can be assigned to monitor any individual diplomat of interest.

Little is known about the non-fapper policies of the American government elsewhere, because they are considered to be classified. We do not know how restrictive these policies are in other countries.

Growing tensions, stricter controls

In recent years, tensions between Washington and Beijing have increased on trade, technology and geopolitical competition.

Peter Mattis, a former CIA analyst and president of the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington -based reflection group, said that there were at least two publicized cases in which Chinese agents had seduced American diplomats stationed in China, although he has not heard of such a case in recent years.

Mattis added that another problem is that Chinese state security does not collect information only by spies, but also by pressing ordinary Chinese people to obtain information, often through threats or intimidation. This said Mattis means that any Chinese citizen who dates from an American diplomat could be vulnerable to coercion.

“The MSS is willing to take advantage of any human connection that a target must collect information,” said Mattis, using an acronym referring to the Ministry of State Security in China. “This change of rule suggests that the MSS has become much more aggressive to try to access the Embassy and the US government.”

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has not commented on the ban, affirming in a faxed statement that it was “more appropriate to ask the United States on this issue”.

China has also tightened already strict controls on its staff abroad, according to Chinese regulations, reports and four familiar people with the Chinese bureaucracy which spoke under the cover of anonymity so that they can discuss a sensitive subject. In recent years, Beijing has started to strictly apply regulations that the promotions of the Chinese officials mark with spouses who have acquired foreign citizenship and prevent diplomats from spending an extended period in a country, forcing some to return to China.

The Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry and many other government organizations prohibit their civil servants and their staff of sexual or romantic relations with foreign citizens, while members of the army or the Chinese police are generally prohibited from leaving China without express approval of their supervisors.

Kang reported to Beijing.

Originally published: April 3, 2025 at 5:03 a.m.