The Lover Who Was Never A Woman: The French Diplomat, A Chinese Spy And The Most Audacious Honey Trap

For 18 years, a French diplomat handed over documents to his Chinese lover he thought was a woman. He even raised her child.

His name was Bernard Boursicot, and his story is a textbook honey trap, the oldest trick used by states. It is back in the conversation because of Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s affair with a woman suspected to be a Chinese spy, which sounds straight out of a Hollywood blockbuster. It is being reported that Huang could have been allegedly honey trapped by Alice Huang.

Honey trap cases have piqued interests and had movies and novels written around them, and Boursicot’s was one of the most thrilling. His lover, Shi Pei Pu, was a Beijing opera singer, librettist and spy. Their affair went on for two decades and left a scandal in its wake. It was adapted into a play, and later a film, M. Butterfly, by David Henry Hwang. It was among the strangest cases of international espionage: a delicate-looking man, a Frenchman besotted with him who believed he was in love with a woman, and even a child.

At 26, Shi also taught Chinese to diplomats’ wives. Through that circle, in 1964, he met Boursicot, a…

Original source: https://www.timesnownews.com/lifestyle