Chairman Xi Jinping's benevolent demeanor and somewhat roly-poly resemblance to a beloved character from many of our childhoods and fondly remembered Disney cartoon adaptations - Winnie the Pooh - belie the ruthless authoritarian beneath the placid exterior. That sleepy, indulgent gaze and beatific smile hide a mind that is always cataloging and clicking along. A brain that oversees a global network of spies in every corner and facet of society, particularly in America, as China's only real rival on the world stage.
We stand in Xi's way. We are the obstruction on his path to world dominance - to the Chinese control that they believe is their destiny.
There are outright Chinese national spies scattered all through academia, the military, and industry. We have usually allowed them in on research and work visas.
For so many years, we've seen where Americans have been lured into betraying their country's secrets by fiduciary rewards offered by the Chinese - which seem to be relatively rare. Or by what are known as 'honeypot' traps. Attractive young Chinese women, often sent to the United States (although they also work American contacts in China itself as well as other countries), under the guise of 'student,' 'research assistant,' or something equally ubiquitous, who always seem to find their way to that one lonely guy who is also in a position with access to information the Chinese want.
What we hear about most often and would probably think of first are the Pentagon types or, most infamously, the Eric Swalwell politicians who fall for the Fang Fangs.
You think Chinese spies working the espionage angle, and that's the girl probably 90 percent of Americans can name right off the top of their heads.
Christine Fang was a go-getter, and Swalwell was the loser she successfully targeted and manipulated.
...The relationship first became public in 2020, when Axios reported that Fang had developed connections with a number of political figures, including Swalwell, as part of what U.S. officials suspected was a Chinese intelligence operation.
At the time, it was known that Fang had helped with fundraising efforts connected to Swalwell’s campaign and helped place an intern in his congressional office. The newly released records add another previously undisclosed dimension to their relationship.
Peter Schweizer, president of the Government Accountability Institute and a longtime critic of Swalwell, called the former congressman’s actions “incredible recklessness.” In a Fox News interview on Monday, Schweizer said Swalwell had also told investigators that Fang repeatedly encouraged him and his family to travel to China, at one point offering to pay for the trip.
Swalwell was never charged with wrongdoing in connection with the investigation. After the FBI alerted him to concerns about Fang, he cut off contact with her and cooperated with investigators.
Swalwell escaped prosecution only by a hair on his greasy chinny chin chin and the grace of being a protected Pelosi protege. Otherwise, he'd have been in a cell like any other turncoat with a loose zipper.
In July, another sad example of a honeypot victim was sentenced, and where he worked was one of those places you wouldn't normally connect with Chinese espionage attempts until you hear about it. Then it makes perfect sense.
The Federal Reserve.
Indicted just as Trump was taking office...
*FORMER SENIOR ADVISER FOR THE FEDERAL RESERVE JOHN HAROLD ROGERS ARRESTED ON CHARGES HE CONSPIRED TO STEAL FED TRADE SECRETS FOR THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
— Geiger Capital (@Geiger_Capital) January 31, 2025
Again…
We are already in the second Cold War. pic.twitter.com/k8AFynbIHE
...and off to Club Fed a year and a half later. What a waste.
🚨CCP ALERT🚨
— Breanna Morello (@BreannaMorello) July 16, 2026
A former senior adviser to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors was sentenced to 38 months in federal prison for making false statements to investigators about sharing restricted Federal Reserve information with Chinese intelligence operatives.
A federal jury… pic.twitter.com/J8UEPlkBeQ
A federal jury deliberated for two days before convicting Rogers of making false statements to investigators from the Office of Inspector General for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
In addition to the 38-month prison sentence, U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich ordered Rogers to serve 12 months of supervised release.
Federal prosecutors had sought a 60-month prison term.
Rogers, who lives in Vienna, Virginia, is a U.S. citizen and holds a Ph.D. in economics.
The lonely single father of four older daughters had been looking for love in all the wrong places, and the Chinese, through years of careful grooming, made sure he found it,
...The now 65-year-old economist was arrested in January 2025, days before he was set to travel to China with his wife, a Chinese national, and their 6-year-old daughter. Investigators believed that Rogers passed information about the Fed to a Chinese government spy, who, over more than a decade, helped him with his career, his finances and his marriage to a woman 24 years his junior.
...Rogers’ descent from senior Fed official to espionage suspect appears to have been driven by his desire for female companionship. This desire was exploited by a Chinese government agent, who became increasingly entwined in Rogers’ professional and personal life. Rogers’ indiscretion was later exploited by online blackmail scammers, ultimately leading to his downfall.
“The facts of this case read like a spy novel,” federal prosecutor Nicholas Hunter told the jury at Rogers’ trial in 2026. “There was sex. There was money, manipulation, secret meetings with shady characters in China, fake identities, lies, trickery, and deceit. But this was real life. The events of this case all happened.”
The Chinese government agent first approached Rogers at a conference in Shanghai in 2013 - this is the long view the Chinese take when cultivating these relationships. Time doesn't matter. Results do.
It's also quite frightening to think about how much information lonely people - or anyone on the web, for that matter - give away about themselves.
...Ralph Goff, a retired 35-year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency, believes the Chinese government might have been tracking Rogers well before he met Lee in Shanghai. Goff, who did not play a role in the Rogers investigation but has decades of experience cultivating sources for espionage, said Rogers would have been a valuable target, given his role as senior advisor overseeing research in the Fed’s international finance division, which gave him an inside view of one of the most important and impenetrable financial institutions in the world.
The Chinese government’s interest may have been piqued by Rogers’ behavior on dating apps. Rogers, a single father whose four children had grown up and moved away, was lonely and spending time on a website called AsianDating.com. He was sending nude photos to people he met online.
A Beege Public Service Announcement:
STOP SENDING NAKED PICTURES TO STRANGERS
Jeez Louise, people.
You can see a disaster setting up here just from that paragraph.
And isn't it a coincidence he stumbles across a pretty young Chinese girl with 'lovely eyes' who spoke perfect English as he's trolling AsianDating one lonely night.
Yeah.
Suddenly he needs his new Chinese buddy to play matchmaker.
What are the odds?
...The two exchanged photos and talked about their goals for the future. Soon, they were discussing building a new life together. Rogers did not speak Chinese. But Yu Yu’s messages were so well written that Rogers believed that she spoke excellent English. Later he learned that she didn’t speak the language at all.
Rogers’ budding romance with Yu Yu changed his relationship with Lee. Suddenly, the American economist was eager to travel to China, where he would be able to meet the woman with the beautiful smile.
Goff said Chinese intelligence was likely aware of the meeting. “If this woman wasn’t a plant by Chinese intelligence into that web dating site, then I’m sure that they had a meeting with her soon after that contact,” Goff said. He said Chinese intelligence could have told Yu Yu to pursue the relationship.
Rogers' bestest new Chinese friend starts 'arranging' for him to 'teach classes' in China, but weirdly, they are always in hotel rooms and always about Federal Reserve policies.
Well...huh.
The smitten economist missed his twenty-four-year-younger girlfriend, and the Chinese were more than happy to cover all the travel arrangements and bills.
...Soon, Rogers wrote to Lee proposing that he be invited back to teach classes at Chinese universities — and to spend a few days in Shanghai, where Yu Yu lived.
Lee replied by email, delighted to accommodate the Federal Reserve economist. “Of course it’s a great plan for us,” Lee wrote. “We always look forward to listening to your presentation. ... Your related expenses in China will all be covered by us.” Lee got to work providing documents for Rogers to use in his visa application to travel to China.
Never once did this 900-pound brain wonder what was up, and by then it was too late, because Yuyu said the stork was coming.
The entire story is just a pathetic tragedy-comedy. There were so many points at which this guy should have said 'Whoa,' or, to use an old Meat Loaf lyric:
I WOULD DO ANYTHING FOR LOVE, BUT I WON'T DO THAT
But he never does.
He's also a creeper, to be honest. In the ensuing years, besides sending the Chinese what are, at the very least, sensitive Federal Reserve policy documents, the man can't keep his pants on.
...But the breakdown of Rogers’ relationship with Yu Yu was complete. Rogers said Yu Yu moved into a guest room in his house.
In his renewed loneliness, Rogers once again turned to the internet. This time it would lead to his downfall.
Blackmail and trial
On Instagram, Rogers exchanged messages with accounts featuring beautiful women, eventually exchanging nude photos of himself taken with his Fed-issued phone, sometimes in the gym at Fed headquarters in Washington.
Soon, the people behind the accounts began demanding money. They told Rogers they knew where he worked, what kind of car he drove. They threatened to send Rogers’ nudes to the vice chair of the Fed, Richard Clarida. They threatened to kidnap Rogers’ then-18-month-old daughter. Rogers would testify that all of this had him “very scared and wanting to protect my family.”
This was the breaking point. In 2020, on Super Bowl Sunday, Rogers told higher-ups what had been going on. They referred Rogers to the Fed’s Office of Inspector General.
All in all, the Federal Reserve got off lucky that this guy outed himself and they got rid of him - not just because he's a turncoat, but because he sounds like a degenerate who would always be a risk.
Rogers confessed, resigned before he got fired (!), and, unbelievably, began teaching again, thinking that spilling his guts at the clubhouse known as the Federal Reserve had saved him.
Not with Trump in the White House, thank goodness.
...Soon after he left the Fed, Rogers began teaching classes at Fudan University — the same university he had visited when he first met Lee in 2013. He believed the case against him had ended.
He was wrong. The Fed had taken the case to the FBI, and more than three years later its agents surrounded Rogers and his dog at the school bus stop.
He was charged with one count of making false statements to investigators and one count of conspiracy to commit economic espionage, the far more serious charge.
And now he's headed to the hoosgow.
I guess it would be easier to ask where aren't there likely to be a Chinese spy or two, because they seem to be everywhere.
Even the Federal Reserve.
Where there are pathetic, weak but well-placed saps to prey on, a Fang Fang or Yuyu will appear to snuggle up and talk dirty to.
Don't do that.
