China warns women off handsome foreign spies in 'Dangerous Love' comic

Updated

China has released a campaign titled Dangerous Love, warning women not to be fooled by the charms of handsome foreign men who may be spies, to mark its first ever National Security Education Day.

The day, which was celebrated on April 15, aimed at promoting public awareness of national security, and the 16-page comic was part of a campaign that included promotional materials and national events.

Dangerous Love tells the story of a young Chinese civil servant named Xiao Li, or Little Li, who hits it off with a red-headed foreign man at a party and starts a relationship with him, according to a translation by China Law Translate.

But the man, David, who says he is a visiting scholar, turns out to be a foreign spy who worms his way into Little Li's heart with compliments, flowers and romantic walks in the park.

The cartoon depicts David convincing Li to give him secret internal documents from her office for his "academic articles", before he disappears without a trace.

'You show a very shallow understanding of secrecy'

Li is then taken into custody, questioned, and told that David has already been captured.

"You show a very shallow understanding of secrecy for a State employee. You are suspected of violating our nation's law," Li is told.

According to an AP report, the cartoon has appeared on local government bulletin boards and is designed to educate employees about keeping classified information confidential and ways to counter espionage.

China has cracked down on domestic and foreign spies under President Xi Jinping, with the establishment of an anti-spying hotline, the inaugural National Security Education Day, and a sweeping national security law passed last year expanding the definition of what is regarded as a violation of national security.

According to Chinese state media reports, the Chinese Government on Tuesday said it had sentenced a former computer technician to death for selling 150,000 classified documents to foreign spies, the New York Times reported.

Topics: arts-and-entertainment, human-interest, offbeat, women, security-intelligence, defence-and-national-security, world-politics, china

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