A Chinese Spy Who Pretended to Be a Woman Gets Pardoned
In the end, Shi, who died in 2009 and Boursicot, who is reportedly in a nursing home, both got pardoned. Their sexually convoluted love affair and alleged spying became one of the strangest cases in international espionage.
The case sparked worldwide interest. Many tried to untangle the mystery of why and how Boursicot betrayed his homeland.
The story
A Chinese man pretended to be a woman to fool her lover, an accountant at the French Embassy. Their convoluted love story is one of the strangest in espionage history.
The story began in 1964, when Bernard Boursicot met Shi Pei Pu at a Christmas party in Beijing. The short, thin man caught Boursicot’s attention with his beautiful eyes and brash demeanour. The two became close friends, and Shi even confided in Boursicot things he never felt comfortable sharing with anyone else. But then, in the midst of the Cultural Revolution, Shi revealed a secret that would change their relationship forever.
Shi was a Beijing opera singer and spy. He was also a homosexual who had been abused as a child. In order to help his cause with the Communist Party, he began passing embassy documents to Chinese officials. The pair became so close that they had sex in the dark and even produced a child, whom Shi claimed to be their offspring.
While this may seem like a bizarre case, it’s far from the only instance of China using people who don’t belong to their country as spies. Thousands of expatriate Chinese scientists, businesspeople and students have been recruited as spies by Beijing, and the US has uncovered evidence of a massive, state-sponsored spy network targeting American companies and research universities to steal sensitive information.
It’s no surprise that many of these spies were lured by the promise of money or status. In fact, China’s main intelligence agency recently warned university students to be wary of handsome men and beautiful women who could attempt to turn them into spies.
The Ministry of State Security (MSS) made the statement in a series of posts on the WeChat social media platform, urging students with access to classified or sensitive research data to be alert to foreign intelligence agents. It’s part of a broader campaign to raise public awareness about the dangers of leaking information to the West. The MSS has also encouraged citizens to use a hotline to report potential spies. However, some experts warn that encouraging people to call the hotline can backfire.
The trial
In a slick video marking National Security Education Day, China’s top spy agency delivers a stern message: foreign spies are everywhere. As ominous music plays, a broad-faced man dressed in street fashion and posing as a lab technician, food delivery driver and businessman sets up online honey traps to glean state secrets from various places and industries. He is eventually caught after Chinese authorities receive multiple tip-offs.
But the video is also a reminder of how close Chinese spying has come to ordinary people in recent years. Since Xi Jinping took office, the Communist Party’s intelligence bureau has shifted its focus from commercial to strategic targets. While private companies remain the primary target of Chinese collection, government entities have also been used to gather information.
Shujun Wang’s case was part of a broader effort to fight back against Chinese espionage in the US. His trial lasted just one week and he was convicted of acting as a covert agent for the Chinese government.
Prosecutors presented jurors with a staggering amount of evidence: email, messages and calendars that showed a steady stream of contacts with MSS officers. And Wang’s defense team struggled to argue that the government had misinterpreted his behavior or that he had no relationship with MSS.
In his closing statement, US Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen called the case “a plot straight out of John LeCarre or Graham Greene.” And he warned that the MSS is continuing its efforts to infiltrate the US economy and undermine national security.
But while the verdict against Wang has been widely celebrated by many in Washington, critics say it’s just the beginning. “The Trump administration is still getting its feet wet in the fight against Chinese espionage,” says an expert.
In the months ahead, the US is expected to file new charges against hackers, business people and others accused of spying for Beijing. And they will seek to increase the punishments for these crimes. The goal is to make it more expensive for the government of China to engage in espionage against the United States.
The verdict
A man who disguised himself as a street fashion photographer, a lab technician and a food delivery driver has been convicted in a New York court of spying for China. Wang Jian, 75, collected information about Chinese nationals living in the US and shared it with China’s Ministry of State Security, prosecutors said.
The story of how he allegedly did it could be lifted from a John Le Carre or Graham Greene novel. But the fact that it was real makes it all the more disturbing.
As a young opera singer, Shi Pei Pu enjoyed modest local fame, often playing female roles. In 1964, he met Bernard Boursicot, an employee of the French embassy in Beijing, and they embarked on a secret love affair that lasted nearly 20 years. During that time, Shi provided Boursicot with a number of sensitive documents.
When they were caught in 1986, Shi and Boursicot were sentenced to six years in prison. But the pair were pardoned two years later and both went on to live out their lives. Shi died in 2009 and Boursicot is reportedly in a nursing home. Their saga inspired the Broadway show M. Butterfly.
In a slick video marking National Security Education Day, China’s top intelligence agency warns the public that foreign spies are everywhere. Using ominous music and images, the video shows a broad-faced man in disguise as a street fashion photographer, a laboratory technician and a businessman who lures his victims into “online honey traps” to steal their secrets.
The Ministry of State Security (MSS) is a powerful government department that oversees the country’s domestic and foreign intelligence operations. It is known for conducting industrial and cyber espionage in addition to surveillance and harassment of the overseas Chinese diaspora, often working in conjunction with the United Front Work Department. But while espionage is an important part of the MSS’s mission, it is increasingly being done in service of the nation’s long-term strategic goals and away from commercial motives. This trend is reflected in a new policy released by the agency earlier this year.
The aftermath
Under Xi Jinping, China’s most authoritarian leader in decades, the country’s civilian spy agency has dramatically raised its profile and broadened its scope. The Ministry of State Security (MSS) is now more than just a covert operations organization; it’s also a visible presence in everyday life.
The MSS’s recent publicity push comes on the heels of a series of high-profile cases involving Chinese hackers, industrial espionage, and state-sponsored theft of intellectual property. In a slick video marking National Security Education Day, the agency warned that foreign spies are everywhere.
While China’s government has a long history of infiltrating American firms to steal trade secrets, under Xi it’s become a much more visible tactic. In the video, a man clad in a blue polo shirt with a beard and wide-set eyes stands in front of a white backdrop while ominous music plays. He then lists the various ways the MSS infiltrates businesses and steals information.
Prosecutors say Wang helped MSS agents target Hong Kong pro-democracy activists, advocates for Taiwanese independence, and Uyghur and Tibetan activists, among others. They allege that he shared information on these groups with his handlers in Beijing. They also accuse him of helping the MSS infiltrate a group chat on the social media app Xiaohongshu, where he posted pictures of his new car and discussed Chinese politics with followers.
One of the alleged spies’ most successful schemes involved stealing GE Aviation’s exclusive composite aircraft engine fan module. The material is so advanced that no other company can duplicate it, and the defendants wanted to sell it to a Chinese firm.
Other cases include Qinggui Zeng, who stole trade secret data for the paint industry from Boeing and used it for the benefit of the Chinese government, and Dongfan Chung, who hacked into computer systems at Oak Ridge, Los Alamos, and other national labs to get designs on military transport aircraft, missiles, and rockets for China.
Even news outlets have been targeted by the state-sponsored hacking. In 2008, hackers infiltrated Barack Obama’s and John McCain’s presidential campaigns to learn about future policy plans. Moreover, the US Navy has reported that Chinese hackers have repeatedly breached its computer networks, stealing sensitive information like ship maintenance, missile designs, and personal information of millions of its customers.
