The Office for the Protection of the Constitution warns German top managers of honey traps

For such operations, “relevant targets are systematically selected and researched.” In this way, they could be put under pressure or induced or bound to “conscious or unconscious collaboration,” the authorities told the newspaper.

The background is Nvidia boss Jensen Huang's extramarital affair with a businesswoman, who, according to media reports, the US authorities assume that she has connections to the Chinese secret service. China denies the accusation that it hired a spy to target Huang.

The chairman of the Bundestag's intelligence control committee, Marc Henrichmann (CDU), believes that similar espionage attempts are also possible in German companies. It cannot be ruled out that Chinese intelligence services are specifically trying to establish contacts right up to the management levels of German companies, Henrichmann told the Handelsblatt. “Chinese espionage is no longer an abstract threat, but is also a real, everyday challenge in Germany.” German companies and research institutions are among the world leaders in many key technologies and are therefore “an attractive target for foreign intelligence services.”

When managers should become skeptical

According to Donald Trump, the FBI is now investigating Jensen Huang's case (more here). The US Federal Police are investigating the case, said the US President. What is piquant is that the tech boss was said to have a close relationship with the US President in the past. For example, he is said to have personally advocated for Trump to relax the export of high-performance AI chips to China. The manager's affair recently caused the share price of the important US chip manufacturer to plummet.

The Thuringian Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Stephan Kramer, believes it is “very likely” that top German managers are also the focus of Chinese intelligence services. The personal environment of the managers could also be targeted, he told the “Handelsblatt”. "The Nvidia case shows what importance such personal access can have in terms of security policy." Not only company data is the target of the investigation, but also the people at the top.