By 路克 (Luke), Vision Times
As Silicon Valley cements its role as the world’s leading innovation and tech hub, U.S. intelligence experts warn that the global race for technology has taken a darker, more disturbing turn. According to a recent report by “The Times of London,” Chinese and Russian operatives are increasingly using what insiders describe as “sex espionage” — seductive encounters, romantic manipulation, and social infiltration — in order to steal American technology and industrial secrets.
James Mulvenon, chief intelligence officer at Pamir Consulting — a firm that assesses risk for U.S. companies investing in China — told “The Times” that he himself has become a target of these schemes.
‘Sex espionage’
“I’ve received numerous LinkedIn connection requests from young, attractive Chinese women, and they’re incredibly sophisticated,” said Mulvenon. “It’s getting worse lately.” He recalled an incident at a Virginia conference focused on China-related investment risks. “Two beautiful Chinese women tried to sneak into the event,” he said, adding, “We didn’t let them in, but they already knew everything about the conference. It’s a phenomenon — and it’s very strange.”
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With three decades of experience studying espionage operations, Mulvenon warned that America has a built-in weakness when it comes to such tactics. “We don’t do this, legally or culturally, so they have an asymmetric advantage,” he said.
Counterintelligence specialists told “The Times” that sexual entrapment is just one layer of a much broader infiltration into America’s technology sector. According to insider sources, China has been exploiting startup pitch competitions to obtain sensitive business plans and undercut U.S. tech firms. In February, the House Homeland Security Committee reported that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) had conducted more than 60 espionage operations in the U.S. over the past four years. “Likely just the tip of the iceberg,” the report noted.
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Startup traps
A senior U.S. counterintelligence official explained that both China and Russia now rely increasingly on ordinary citizens instead of professional spies to conduct these high-level infiltrations. “We’re no longer chasing KGB officers in German hotels,” the official said. “China is mobilizing its entire society to penetrate our technology and talent base.”
Another former intelligence officer revealed a case involving a Russian woman who married an American aerospace engineer. “She was trained at a ‘Russian soft power school,’” the official said. “10 years later she resurfaced in the U.S. as a cryptocurrency expert and infiltrated defense innovation circles; her husband had no idea.”
“They often marry, have children, and then conduct lifelong intelligence gathering,” the officer added.
According to the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property, the U.S. loses up to a whopping $600 billion annually due to trade secret theft, with China identified as the main culprit.
The ‘cash-out’ strategy
In 2023, Klaus Pflugbeil, a German engineer living in Ningbo, China, was sentenced to 24 months in prison after attempting to sell Tesla’s proprietary technology files for $15 million to an undercover agent. His accomplice, Shao Yilong, remains at large. Both men had previously worked for a Canadian firm acquired by Tesla and later used stolen data to launch a rival company in China.
“This scheme directly benefited the People’s Republic of China in a key industry,” said U.S. Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen.
U.S. officials have since warned startups about international pitch competitions that require participants to submit intellectual property details or personal data — sometimes under the guise of “prize money” or other bonus payments wired directly to personal accounts.
Mulvenon noted that Chinese state-backed venture funds often use investment offers as a form of infiltration and high-level hacking, particularly targeting startups that once received Pentagon or DARPA funding. “It’s a new version of China’s ‘cash-out’ strategy,” he said.
Andrew Kim, chairman of the nonprofit Future Union, criticized the continued vulnerability of the U.S. tech sector. “It’s shocking that these competitions are still happening after years of exposure,” Kim said.
China’s economic war
A Senate investigation found that between 2023 and 2024, six of the 25 top U.S. firms receiving federal funding had direct ties to China, amounting to nearly $180 million in total grants. Security scholar Jeff Stoff warned that Beijing has learned to exploit the U.S. system’s weaknesses. “The Chinese understand our institutions perfectly — and they know how to operate in the gaps,” he said.
He added that U.S. counterintelligence agencies are “struggling to catch up” due to insufficient oversight. “China is targeting our startups, our universities, and our defense research programs — and we haven’t even shown up on the battlefield,” Stoff warned.
In another report by the “New York Post,” former Russian “sex spy” Aliia Roza warned Silicon Valley professionals that tech elites are prime targets for love-based deception. Having defected years ago, Roza said she was trained from her teenage years to manipulate emotional vulnerability. “Agents are trained to appear in the target’s life seven times before making contact — to create trust — then they launch a ‘love bombing’ phase,” she said. “If they can’t get the information, they threaten to disappear.”
Roza noted that many highly intelligent men in the tech industry are socially vulnerable, especially single ones. “Many of them are brilliant in technology but fragile in relationships,” she said, adding, “Single men are especially easy targets.”
Now a U.S. resident with a green card, Roza has gone public to educate others about emotional manipulation. “My mission is to help people recognize and defend against psychological control,” she said.
Roza is now collaborating with bestselling author Neil Strauss on a podcast titled “To Die For,” which exposes the dark realities of sex-based espionage. “Education is prevention,” said Roza as she urged Silicon Valley workers to verify identities offline, slow down relationships, and reject any requests involving confidential or urgent information.
