OTTAWA —Ian Clement said he should have known better when he travelled to the Beijing Olympics in 2008 as London’s deputy mayor. He had been briefed by Britain’s intelligence service, but he didn’t listen.
“They told me about honeytraps and warned me that the Chinese secret service often use women to entice men to bed to get information. I didn’t think for one minute that I would fall for it,” Clement admitted to the Mirror newspaper last week.
Clement said the attractive Chinese woman he met at a party likely drugged his drink. After he'd passed out, she went through his room, collecting information about London’s operations and business dealings.
Indeed, Mr. Clement should have known better. Just a few weeks before his Olympic trip, the story of another U.K. government staffer caught with his pants down in China was splashed over the British media. That man, an aide to the British Prime Minister, also fell victim to a “honeytrap.” He woke from a night with a Chinese woman to find his blackberry stolen, a theft that security experts said jeopardized U.K. Parliamentary email servers.
Stephen Harper didn’t attend the 2008 Summer Olympics, the largest-ever collection of world leaders at a sporting event. But as he arrives in Beijing this week for his first visit as Prime Minister, former Chinese officials and Canadian security experts say he and his entourage should be on their guard.
“They told me about honeytraps and warned me that the Chinese secret service often use women to entice men to bed to get information. I didn’t think for one minute that I would fall for it,” Clement admitted to the Mirror newspaper last week.
Clement said the attractive Chinese woman he met at a party likely drugged his drink. After he'd passed out, she went through his room, collecting information about London’s operations and business dealings.
Indeed, Mr. Clement should have known better. Just a few weeks before his Olympic trip, the story of another U.K. government staffer caught with his pants down in China was splashed over the British media. That man, an aide to the British Prime Minister, also fell victim to a “honeytrap.” He woke from a night with a Chinese woman to find his blackberry stolen, a theft that security experts said jeopardized U.K. Parliamentary email servers.
Stephen Harper didn’t attend the 2008 Summer Olympics, the largest-ever collection of world leaders at a sporting event. But as he arrives in Beijing this week for his first visit as Prime Minister, former Chinese officials and Canadian security experts say he and his entourage should be on their guard.
