US ambassador to China says Jensen Huang scandal 'reminds us to stay vigilant'

US Ambassador to China David Perdue said the scandal surrounding Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's alleged affair with a woman suspected of spying for China "reminds us that we must continue to stay vigilant."

Perdue made the remarks in an interview with Bloomberg TV on Wednesday on the sidelines of the Citi China Conference in Shanghai. "National security is part of the economic discussion because economic security is national security," he said, adding that the current state of US-China relations "is a difficult situation."

The United States has blocked China from accessing Nvidia's most advanced semiconductors, citing concerns that advances in AI technology could affect national security. Against that backdrop, reports that Huang had an affair with Alice Huang — a Chinese national also known by her Chinese name Huang Le, who is suspected of being recruited by Chinese intelligence — have stirred controversy.

US investigators and Congress are examining evidence that Alice Huang used her close ties with Jensen Huang to arrange the large-scale supply of Nvidia's high-performance chips to China through third countries, and are working to verify the facts. The Chinese government has strongly denied that Alice Huang is a spy for Beijing.

A summit between the United States and China is scheduled for Nov. 18-19 in Shenzhen, China, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. Bloomberg noted that the meeting between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping could be complicated by the Jensen Huang scandal involving allegations of industrial espionage.