The US recently reinstated its Cold War-era ban on diplomats in China dating locals, except for pre-existing relationships. A similar blanket ban, revealed in 1987 documents after a US Marine in Moscow had an affair with a Soviet spy, was eased after the collapse of the erstwhile Soviet Union.

The US not only banned its personnel in China, but also family members and contractors with security clearances, from any romantic or sexual relationships with Chinese citizens. The Associated Press (AP) came to know from four people with direct knowledge of the policy that departing US Ambassador Nicholas Burns made a move in this regard in January 2025 shortly before he left China. Though some US agencies already had strict rules on such relationships, a blanket non-fraternisation policy, as it is known, has been unheard of publicly since the Cold War. It is not uncommon for US diplomats in other countries to date locals and even marry them.

A more limited version of the policy was enacted last summer, prohibiting US personnel from romantic and sexual relations with Chinese citizens working as guards and other support staff at the US Embassy and five consulates in the Asian country. However, Burns, the departing ambassador, broadened it to a blanket ban on such relations with any Chinese citizen in China in January, days before President Donald John Trump took office. However, the AP was unable to determine exactly how the policy defined the phrase “romantic or sexual relationship“.

Two of the people with knowledge of the ban told the AP that the new policy was first discussed last summer after members of the US Congress contacted Burns to express concern that restrictions on such relationships were not stringent enough. However, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party did not respond to a request for comment.

The new policy covers US missions in mainland China, including the embassy in Beijing and consulates in Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenyang and Wuhan, as well as the US consulate in the semi-autonomous territory of Hong Kong. It does not apply to US personnel stationed outside China. The only exception to the policy is US personnel with pre-existing relations with Chinese citizens. They can apply for exemptions. If the exemption is denied, they must end the relationship or leave their position. Anyone who violates the policy will be ordered to leave China immediately. The policy was communicated verbally and electronically to US personnel in China in January, but has not been publicly announced.

The US State Department has said that it does not comment on internal matters, while the National Security Council has referred questions to the State Department. Burns, the former ambassador, did not reply to an AP request sent to his email address at The Cohen Group, a consultancy that he rejoined as vice chair in February 2025.

A Cold War throwback Intelligence services across the world have long used attractive men and women to obtain sensitive information, famously during the Cold War. The State Department and other agencies with offices in China have long had stringent reporting requirements on personal relationships for US personnel stationed there, as well as rivals considered high intelligence threats, such as Russia or Cuba. Declassified State Department documents show that the US Government barred personnel stationed in the Soviet bloc and China from befriending, dating or having sex with locals in 1987 after a US Marine in Moscow was seduced by a Soviet agent. Such restrictions were relaxed after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.

In China, a blanket ban on such relations has not been in effect for many years. Until the new ban in January 2025, US personnel in China were required to report any intimate contact with Chinese citizens to their supervisors, but were not explicitly forbidden from sexual or romantic relationships. US diplomats and intelligence experts have stressed that Beijing continues to aggressively use so-called honeypots to access US secrets. In presentations before being stationed in China, US personnel are briefed on case studies where Chinese intelligence services sent attractive women to seduce US diplomats and warned that dozens of Chinese state security agents could be assigned to monitor any individual diplomat of interest. Little is known about the US Government’s non-fraternisation policies elsewhere, as they are considered classified. It is unknown how restrictive such policies are in other countries.

In recent years, tensions between Washington DC and Beijing have escalated over trade, technology and geopolitical competition. Peter Mattis, a former CIA analyst and President of The Jamestown Foundation (a Washington DC-based think tank), has said that there were at least two publicised cases in which Chinese agents seduced US diplomats stationed in China. However, he has not heard of such a case in recent years. According to Mattis, another issue is that Chinese state security does not gather intelligence just through agents, but also by pressing ordinary Chinese people for information, often through threats or intimidation. That, Mattis said, means any Chinese citizen who dates a US diplomat could be vulnerable to coercion.

Mattis, using an acronym referring to the Chinese Ministry of State Security, further said: “The MSS is willing to leverage any human connection that a target has to collect intelligence. This rule change suggests the MSS has gotten a lot more aggressive at trying to access the embassy and US Government.”

Meanwhile, the Chinese Foreign Ministry did not comment on the ban, mentioning in a faxed statement that it was “more appropriate to ask the US about this question”. China has been tightening already strict controls on its personnel overseas in order to discourage them from discussing sensitive topics. In recent years, Beijing has started strictly enforcing regulations that bar promotions for Chinese civil servants with spouses who acquired foreign citizenship and restrict diplomats from spending an extended period of time in a country, forcing some to return to China.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry and many other government bodies bar their officials and staff from sexual or romantic relations with foreign citizens, while members of the Chinese Military or Police are generally barred from leaving the country altogether without approval from their supervisors.

TRT Global published this article on April 2, 2025.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das