The State Department has fired a U.S. diplomat who officials said concealed a romantic relationship with a Chinese woman who had ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
The diplomat was a foreign service officer, requiring him to disclose his contact with the woman, who was the daughter of a Chinese Communist Party official, U.S. officials said.
The State Department did not name the diplomat, who a spokesman for the department, Tommy Pigott, said in a statement had “admitted concealing a romantic relationship.”
“We will maintain a zero-tolerance policy for any employee who is caught undermining our country’s national security,” Mr. Pigott said.
President Trump approved the firing, the State Department said. It is believed to be the first time that a foreign service officer has been disciplined under an executive order that Mr. Trump signed in February calling for “reform” of the Foreign Service, America’s corps of professional diplomats, “to ensure faithful and effective implementation” of his foreign policy agenda.
The State Department declined to elaborate on the diplomat’s background. It was not immediately clear where he was stationed or what level of security clearance he had.
His dismissal drew further scrutiny to China’s influence in the United States, where government institutions and corporations have grappled with the theft of trade secrets, hacks and so-called honeypot schemes targeting officials under the guise of romantic relationships.
The fired diplomat discussed the relationship while being secretly recorded by another woman he met through a dating app who was working undercover for a site run by the conservative media figure James O’Keefe.
In the video footage from the exchange, the foreign service officer discussed dating a Chinese national for about six weeks in 2024 and said he had decided to keep the relationship from the State Department.
In Beijing, a spokesman for the Chinese government declined to comment on the matter, describing it in a daily briefing with reporters as a domestic U.S. issue, The Associated Press reported.
“But I would like to stress that we oppose drawing lines based on ideological difference and maliciously smearing China,” Guo Jiakun, a foreign ministry spokesman, said at the briefing.
Neil Vigdor covers breaking news for The Times, with a focus on politics.
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