Extramarital actions have led to the resignation of one among America’s most influential tech bosses, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. The saga has additionally raised the specter of an age-old spying tactic: the “honey entice.”
Huang stepped down following media reports of an extramarital relationship with Alice Huang, a Singapore-based government suspected of having ties to Chinese intelligence agencies. She beforehand labored for Megaspeed, a cloud computing firm under U.S. scrutiny for allegedly serving to China acquire restricted AI chips.
Jensen Huang acknowledged an affair. And amid reviews of a second with a company executive who reports to him, he tendered his resignation to the Nvidia board on Nov. 12, 2026.
The sensitivity of Huang’s work – AI is more and more seen as central to national security – has turned an organization matter into a global problem. China’s Overseas Ministry has denied the espionage allegations and accused the U.S. of “fabricating so-called spy narratives and utilizing them as a pretext for imposing a technological blockade.” Nvidia says it has no reason to believe firm secrets and techniques have been leaked.
But a part of what makes the accusations so plausible is history is dotted with examples of males being distracted, compromised or spied on by engaging women and men deployed for that objective.
Certainly, in China it remembers an historical political tactic often called “meiren ji” or the “beauty stratagem.”
As a scholar specializing in U.S.-China relations, I imagine that whatever the particulars of the Huang case, the political logic behind the sweetness stratagem – utilizing private relationships to acquire data, affect choices and weaken opponents – stays related in the present day. As such, it will be no shock if the tactic was getting used amid the rising U.S.-China competitors over AI and superior semiconductors.
The wonder stratagem of Historic China
“Meiren ji” is one among “Thirty-Six Stratagems,” a Chinese language navy textual content of unsure origin however usually believed to have derived from oral and written histories from the Warring States interval — 475–221 BCE. Its thirty first stratagem states that private relationships can be utilized to affect political opponents and recommends exploiting an adversary’s private wishes and emotional vulnerabilities to weaken their judgment and undermine their management.
The “Thirty-Six Stratagems” is each a playbook for warfare and a mirrored image on previous expertise.
Certainly, one among China’s most well-known magnificence stratagem tales dates again greater than 2,000 years to the Spring and Autumn period of Chinese language historical past.
Within the fifth century BCE, King Goujian of Yue, in modern-day southern China, was defeated by King Fuchai of Wu, its northern neighbor, and compelled to submit. However Goujian secretly rebuilt his power and ready for revenge.
In keeping with the traditional historic textual content “Wu Yue Chun Qiu,” Yue despatched two stunning ladies – Xi Shi and Zheng Dan – to Fuchai, hoping he would develop into distracted by pleasure and neglect state affairs.
The plan reportedly labored. Fuchai, seemingly enchanted by the gorgeous ladies, progressively ignored Yue’s menace. In the meantime, Goujian ready for battle and in 473 BCE Yue conquered Wu.
Wikimedia Commons
Xi Shi’s precise position in Wu’s downfall stays unclear. Wu’s defeat involved poor political decisions and Yue’s navy restoration.
Nonetheless, the story illustrated an essential thought in Chinese language political technique: exploiting an opponent’s private weaknesses can generally be more practical than confronting him straight.
The same tactic seems within the 14th-century novel “Romance of the Three Kingdoms,” thought of one of many classics of Chinese language literature.
It tells the story of Dong Zhuo, a strong warlord who managed the imperial courtroom throughout the late Japanese Han Dynasty. To take away him, Wang Yun, a senior courtroom official loyal to the Han Dynasty promised a fantastic younger girl, named Diaochan, in marriage to Dong Zhuo’s navy commander. He then provided the identical girl to Dong Zhuo.
The scheme fueled jealousy and mistrust between the 2 males, finally enabling Wang Yun to influence Dong Zhuo’s underling to kill him. Wang Yun then briefly took cost of the imperial courtroom on behalf of the Han emperor.
The ‘honey entice’ of contemporary spyware and adware
In fashionable intelligence operations, utilizing romantic or sexual relationships to strategy targets, acquire delicate data or exert affect is usually known as a “honey trap.” It’s, furthermore, definitely not distinctive to China. Western and Soviet intelligence businesses used intimate relationships for espionage often during the Cold War.
Fashionable China additionally has documented instances. One instance includes French diplomat Bernard Boursicot and the Chinese opera performer Shi Pei Pu. The pair met in Beijing in 1964 and maintained a long-term intimate relationship. All through, Boursicot was offering French diplomatic paperwork to China. The spying was finally uncovered and each concerned have been prosecuted for espionage in France within the Eighties.
Laurent Maous/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
A more moderen instance includes former U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell and Christine Fang, a suspected Chinese language intelligence operative. Swalwell acknowledged in 2015 that he had been bodily intimate with Fang on a number of events. On the time, Fang helped elevate funds for Swalwell’s marketing campaign and helped place an intern in his congressional workplace.
Why Jensen Huang is strategically essential
Jensen Huang’s place would make him a primary goal for such a “honey entice” operation. His firm has develop into central to the technological competitors between the U.S and China. As AI turns into more and more essential to financial growth, navy capabilities and nationwide safety, furthermore, Washington has repeatedly tightened restrictions on superior AI chip exports to China, hoping to sluggish its entry to computing energy.
Beijing is investing heavily in domestic semiconductor development. But Chinese language firms nonetheless need advanced chips to coach AI fashions and construct information facilities.
From Beijing’s perspective, superior AI chips matter not just for Chinese language expertise firms however for future navy and technological competitors.
This places Nvidia in a very essential place and helps clarify the nationwide safety considerations surrounding Huang.
Nevertheless, strategic motives don’t show an intelligence operation occurred. Jensen Huang’s significance doesn’t, in itself, set up that he was focused by a honey entice or that Alice Huang acted for Chinese language intelligence. These are allegations that also require full investigation.
Espionage within the age of AI
But it’s absolutely true that in fashionable politics – simply as in historical China’s rivalries – rivals search details about opponents, attempt to affect essential choices and exploit weaknesses to achieve strategic benefits.
What has modified is who controls essential strategic assets.
In historical China, influencing a ruler by means of private relationships may have an effect on a rustic’s political and navy choices. At this time, approaching a significant expertise government may provide entry to delicate applied sciences.
Greater than 2,000 years in the past, a strong state may lose its benefit by means of a ruler’s private weaknesses. At this time, political and technological energy are distributed otherwise.
However so long as essential choices depend upon people, private relationships might stay a weak point that rivals can exploit.