and operatives — sex warfare
Some Silicon Valley professionals have recently been targeted with sophisticated LinkedIn requests by foreign seductresses such as attractive young Chinese women hoping to gain access to US tech secrets.
At a business conference on Chinese investment risks hosted in Virginia last week, two attractive Chinese women showed up and attempted to gain entry.
China is also hosting competitions for startups on US soil to steal sensitive business plans, and even trying to sabotage US tech companies.
Both Russia and the CCP are using ordinary citizens — investors, crypto analysts, businessmen and academics — to target their American counterparts, rather than trained agents, making the espionage harder to spot.
“Our adversaries — particularly the Chinese — are using a whole-of-society approach to exploit all aspects of our technology and Western talent.”
There’s the case of one “beautiful” Russian woman who worked at an aerospace company and married an American colleague. She had gone to a modelling academy in her twenties but later attended a “Russian soft-power school” before disappearing for a decade and re-emerging in the US as a cryptocurrency expert. But she didn’t stay in crypto. She is trying to get to the heights of the military-space innovation community. The husband’s totally oblivious.
“Showing up, marrying a target, having kids with a target — and conducting a lifelong collection operation, it’s very uncomfortable to think about but it’s so prevalent.”
The US government has warned startups against entering international “pitch competitions” where founders pitch their business ideas to investors. Winners can receive cash awards, subsidies and investment — on the condition that they bring their IP to China and set up an operation there.
Some of the competitions ask startups to share their business strategies, IP and even personal data and photos before participating.
“They’re looking at how they can exploit you later. And part of it is they may simply take your idea, exploit it and patent it, stealing your financial future.”
Academics and younger innovators eager to develop their ideas and establish a lucrative business are especially susceptible to exploitation. One contest that has officials concerned is the 9th annual China (Shenzhen) Innovation and Entrepreneurship International Competition, held this month in several cities across the world including Boston, London and Tokyo. Winners are expected to form a business in China in order to receive cash awards and investment.
A Silicon Valley biotech firm CEO who attended last year’s competition in Nov said he had been made to wear a microphone throughout the event and was followed around by officials. “They would record everything I would say, do and then ask questions like a reporter would: ‘What do we do? How do we do it?’” There were “government representatives in the back observing the competition”.
His company won a $50,000 prize. There were no conditions attached to this money, but he’s surprised that organizers wired the funds to his personal account rather than his company’s. Earlier this year the US government paused federal funding to his company, forcing him to dissolve the operation.
This is a deliberate tactic. It’s common for China-backed venture capitalists to target US startups initially funded by the DoD and then later make investments in those firms. “The percentage of foreign ownership crosses a threshold so the DoD can’t make any more investments in those companies, denying the government access to innovative startups and IP. It’s the latest iteration of the Chinese gameplay. I call it ‘drafting’.”
6 of the 25 largest recipients of federal funding via the Small Business Innovation Research programme had “clear links” to China — but still received nearly $180M from the Pentagon in 2023 and 2024.
https://thetimes.com/us/american-politics/article/silicon-valley-spy-china-russia-2v03676kl…
and 
operatives — sex warfare
Some Silicon Valley professionals have recently been targeted with sophisticated LinkedIn requests by foreign seductresses such as attractive young Chinese women hoping to gain access to US tech secrets.
At a business conference on Chinese investment risks hosted in Virginia last week, two attractive Chinese women showed up and attempted to gain entry.
China is also hosting competitions for startups on US soil to steal sensitive business plans, and even trying to sabotage US tech companies.
Both Russia and the CCP are using ordinary citizens — investors, crypto analysts, businessmen and academics — to target their American counterparts, rather than trained agents, making the espionage harder to spot.
“Our adversaries — particularly the Chinese — are using a whole-of-society approach to exploit all aspects of our technology and Western talent.”
There’s the case of one “beautiful” Russian woman who worked at an aerospace company and married an American colleague. She had gone to a modelling academy in her twenties but later attended a “Russian soft-power school” before disappearing for a decade and re-emerging in the US as a cryptocurrency expert. But she didn’t stay in crypto. She is trying to get to the heights of the military-space innovation community. The husband’s totally oblivious.
“Showing up, marrying a target, having kids with a target — and conducting a lifelong collection operation, it’s very uncomfortable to think about but it’s so prevalent.”
The US government has warned startups against entering international “pitch competitions” where founders pitch their business ideas to 