How China mastered the art of the honeytrap: As Nvidia boss Jensen Huang sees an affair detonate his career, we reveal how Beijing is finding new ways to exploit the libidos of powerful men in the West

Resumen detallado

Who needs tenacious hackers when the boss of the world's most cutting-edge firm can seemingly fall victim to one of the oldest espionage tools?

Published: 01:01 GMT, 14 November 2026 | Updated: 10:02 GMT, 14 November 2026

The Jensen Huang scandal shows that no matter how sophisticated artificial intelligence becomes, there’s no accounting for human stupidity.

The now ex-boss of Nvidia, who has admitted to an affair with alleged Chinese spy Alice Huang – and is also accused of having relationships with two employees – once boasted that cyber security was the next big market for artificial intelligence (AI).

But who needs tenacious hackers when the boss of the world’s most cutting-edge firm can seemingly fall victim to one of the oldest espionage tools – one described by Chairman Mao as the ‘beautiful woman stratagem’, or meiren ji in Mandarin?

It was not the first time, and it will not be the last time, that a powerful man with a global-sized ego has apparently walked into a honeytrap. They have long been popular with Chinese intelligence agencies – as a means of both espionage and entrapment, at home and abroad.

But as the tech race with the US heats up, so Silicon Valley and its hapless tech nerds have become a prime target.

China’s spy chief, Chen Yixin, recently described AI as ‘the main battleground in global technological competition’ and companies appear to be aware of the threat, running clunky training courses on how to spot a dodgy approach.

Jensen Huang, the now ex-boss of Nvidia, admitted to an affair with alleged Chinese spy Alice Huang (pictured together) – and is also accused of having relationships with two employees

Shirly Shen of Internship Union, based in Hong Kong, was named by MI5 in a warning about Chinese spies posing as ‘headhunters’ for China’s main spy agency

Inicio del artículo, extracto de Daily Mail. Para leer el resto, abra el artículo en el sitio del medio.