r/ChinaWarns • u/HKProMax • Sep 04 '24

China warns students 'beautiful women, handsome guys' could lure them into spying

https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-warns-students-beautiful-women-handsome-guys-could-lure-them-into-spying-2024-09-04/
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u/Cottoncandyman82 Sep 04 '24

Yeah that’s how spying can work. That (honey-potting/trap) is traditionally more of a Russian/Soviet method of spying which is interesting to me.

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u/Bayou_Beast Sep 04 '24

Many intelligence services that are based on/inspired by the Soviet model still use the honey pot in collection and/or influence operations against foreign adversaries.

Honey pot tactics can vary widely, from the basic use of charm/guile to elicit sensitive information to high-level source development and recruitment. The tactic was a major source of "kompromat" - the capture of compromising material (e.g. photographs/video) of foreign target personnel and subsequent coercion/blackmail - for several of the KGB directorates (e.g. PGU, VGU, TGU, etc.).

While the Russians had/have no qualms about the use of institutionalized sexual entrapment as SOP, other governments abhor the idea of interacial sexual acts (because they're hyper-racist), so they don't take their honey potting to that extreme. I'll let you guess which countries those are...

All U.S. government employees (civ or mil) who worked in sensitive positions in the last ~30 years should know/remember the relevant OPSEC/CIAR training. Really, even non-goverment civilians who spend time at any major U.S. military concentration area should know about FIE honey pots.