Chinese ‘spy’ befriended US political rising stars in alleged influence plot

US and Chinese flags

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A new Chinese spying row has erupted in America after allegations emerged that a suspected intelligence officer acting for Beijing got close to local US politicians. 

Axios, the news website, published details of what it said was a year-long investigation into the actions of a Chinese woman called Fang Fang or Christine Fang.

The media outlet said that Ms Fang had grown close to a number of politicians in the San Francisco Bay area between the years of 2011 and 2015.

One of the politicians Ms Fang reportedly built links with was Eric Swalwell, the Californian congressman who ran for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.

Ms Fang took part in fundraising activity for Mr Swalwell’s 2014 re-election campaign and helped place an intern in his office, according to Axios.

Mr Swalwell’s office said that the congressman had been asked by the FBI to provide information about Ms Fang and had not seen her for nearly six years, declining to comment further. 

Eric Swalwell, the Democratic congressman, ran for his party's 2020 presidential nomination 

Credit: SAUL LOEB / AFP

Axios also reported allegations that Ms Fang had “romantic or sexual relationships with at least two Midwestern mayors”, though did not name the politicians involved.

Throughout the article Axios cited multiple anonymous current and former US intelligence officials to underpin the information published in their reporting.

That included the claim that Ms Fang was working under the direction of China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS), its main civilian spy agency, and was eventually put under FBI surveillance.

The website reported the alleged Chinese plot involved targeting local or state-level politicians on the rise in the hope they would one day hold more prominent national positions.

Axios said Ms Fang unexpectedly left America in 2015 and quoted a former US politician who knew her saying she “left kind of abruptly”. 

It reported that US intelligence officials do not believe Ms Fang received or passed on classified information but were spooked by her closeness to some politicians. 

Axios said neither Ms Fang nor the Chinese Embassy in Washington DC commented despite repeated requests. Ms Fang was not quoted in the article.

The Telegraph could not reach Ms Fang. The Chinese Embassy in Washington DC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The allegations are the latest to surface as successive US administrations have attempted to curb Chinese espionage on US politicians.

The New York Times reported last year that two Chinese embassy officials were secretly expelled after they drove onto a sensitive military base in Virginia.

Barack Obama, the former US president, recalled in his recent memoirs how he and other delegation members were told not to use personal mobile phones during a trip to China, expecting they would be monitored. 

He also detailed how US officials on the trip showered with the lights off, suspecting that secret cameras were filming them.

And Mr Obama said that one senior US official had returned to his room after leaving and forgetting something to find two men in suits rifling through his papers.