BEIJING: Beijing accused the United States on Thursday of using spurious espionage claims as a pretext to impose a technological “blockade” on China, following allegations that Nvidia boss Jensen Huang was the target of a Chinese espionage plot.
“China’s technological progress is driven by independent innovation and open cooperation. The US side should stop fabricating such ‘spy’ narratives as a pretext for imposing a technological blockade,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a regular briefing.
Huang, who co-founded Nvidia and turned it into the world’s leading supplier of chips that power artificial intelligence (AI), has admitted to having an extramarital affair, reportedly with Alice Huang.
She is reportedly a former executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed and is believed by US officials to have worked for Chinese intelligence.
The Nvidia boss has spent years lobbying against restrictions on sales of advanced chips to China.
US President Donald Trump last year approved the export of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China, despite objections from critics in both parties who fear Beijing could win the race to dominate AI technology.
China has dismissed the allegations of espionage involving Huang as “groundless speculation” and “an attempt to smear China”.
The controversy comes ahead of a meeting next week between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the APEC gathering in Shenzhen, southern China.
