Responding to a question about whether the “Nvidia spying affair” would affect China-US relations, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs urged the US to stop using spy narratives as a pretext for technology restrictions.
A journalist asked whether China was concerned that the “Nvidia spying affair” would affect bilateral relations, particularly with the two countries’ leaders potentially meeting next week, and how Beijing would respond if Washington used the matter to further restrict technology exports to China.
At a regular press briefing on Thursday (12 November), Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said: “We have already made our position clear on the ‘Chinese spy’ narrative.” She stressed that China’s technological progress relied on independent innovation and open cooperation, and that the US should stop fabricating spy narratives as a pretext for imposing a technology blockade.
Mao added that China and the US remained in close communication on interactions between their leaders. “We are willing to work with the US to implement the important consensus reached by the two leaders and advance a constructive China-US relationship of strategic stability based on respect, fairness and reciprocity.”
Bloomberg asked whether Chinese businesswoman Alice Huang, whom the US had identified as having spied for Beijing during an affair with Jensen Huang, chief executive of US technology giant Nvidia, was currently living in Beijing. Mao replied: “I am not aware of the situation you mentioned.”
Bloomberg reported on Thursday (12 November), citing people familiar with the matter, that Alice Huang, with whom Jensen Huang had an extramarital affair, had returned to China and was now living in Beijing.
In an interview with Bloomberg Television during the Citi China Summit in Shanghai on Wednesday (11 November), US Ambassador to China David Perdue suggested that the controversy over Jensen Huang’s affair with a suspected spy was testing US-China relations.
The New York Times reported on 29 October that US intelligence agencies had determined that Alice Huang, a Chinese woman close to Jensen Huang, had provided information to Beijing and believed she had been recruited by a Chinese intelligence agency. Responding to a question from AFP on 30 October, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said the report was “purely a smear and slander against China”.
After Jensen Huang admitted to an extramarital affair on 8 November, foreign media reports that the woman involved was a suspected Chinese spy caused a stir in China’s public discourse. Responding to another question from AFP on Monday (9 November), Guo reiterated: “The so-called ‘Chinese spy’ narrative is entirely baseless speculation, slander and smears.”
At the regular press briefing on Tuesday (10 November), Bloomberg asked whether China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs could confirm whether Alice Huang was a Chinese citizen and where she was currently located.
Guo reiterated at the briefing: “We have already responded to this. The so-called Chinese spy narrative is entirely baseless speculation, slander and smears.”
