Trump recently claimed that before meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in May this year, he did not know about the extramarital affair between Huida CEO Huang Renxun and suspected Chinese intelligence activist Huang Le. However, the New York Times revealed that Trump received briefings at least twice in seven months; Axios also exclusively revealed that Commerce Secretary Lutnick also received highly confidential warnings.
The New York Times pointed out that Trump received a briefing on the incident for the first time as early as the late fall of 2025, but took no action at that time. According to people familiar with the matter, Trump was mainly worried that the incident would disrupt Huida chip sales, which would in turn affect the U.S. economy and stock market, and he did not want to further worsen the then-complicated U.S.-China trade relations.
According to reports, in the spring of this year, Secretary of State Rubio supervised the drafting of a highly confidential memorandum to alert a small number of high-level government officials to the relationship between Huang Jen-Hsun and Huang Le and the possible national security concerns involved. Originally, Huang was not on the list of business leaders for Trump's May visit, but Trump later temporarily invited him to join the delegation.
When Air Force One docked in Anchorage, Alaska, for refueling, Huang was preparing to board the plane. After Rubio learned the news, he immediately verbally briefed Trump on the relevant intelligence. However, after Trump listened to the briefing, he still allowed Huang to accompany him as originally planned. He only met with Trump briefly after boarding the plane and mostly stayed in another cabin area during the flight. It is still unclear whether this confidential memorandum affected Huang's initial not being included in the visiting delegation.
On the other hand, "Axios" quoted multiple people familiar with the matter as saying that Commerce Secretary Lutnick was also sent a highly confidential memo warning Huang Jen-Hsun about his relationship with suspected Chinese intelligence activist Huang Le.
Since the Department of Commerce led by Lutnick is responsible for controlling the export of sensitive U.S. technologies and preventing technology from flowing into countries or companies that may endanger national security, this warning has also raised questions about whether the Department of Commerce fully assesses potential security risks when approving relevant Chinese companies to purchase advanced Huida chips.
The Financial Times quoted McGuire, a former senior U.S. export control official, as saying that it is incomprehensible that the Commerce Department had obtained relevant intelligence months ago but did not prevent Megaspeed from purchasing Huida chips worth US$4.8 billion (approximately NT$156 billion). He believes that in accordance with current export control regulations, the Ministry of Commerce should require untrusted companies such as Megaspeed to obtain an export license before purchasing AI chips.
When Trump was asked on the 9th whether he had received relevant briefings in 2025, he said that it still needed to be verified. The White House Press Office refuted the New York Times report via email but did not elaborate further; the State Department declined to comment.
