This is the first of the dismissals for violating a ban on such relationships which had been introduced in 2024 by the Biden administration. The US State Department said on Wednesday that it has fired an American diplomat over his romantic relationship which he admitted having with a Chinese women with alleged ties to the Chinese Communist party.
The case was reviewed by the US President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. This is the first of the dismissals for violating a ban on such relationships which had been introduced in 2024 by the Biden administration.
The Associated Press reported in early 2025 that the US State Department had imposed a ban on all American government personnel in China along with family members and contractors with security clearances to form any romantic or sexual relationships with Chinese citizens.
Tommy Pigott, a State Department spokesman, said in a statement that the diplomat in question was dismissed from the foreign service after Trump and Rubio reviewed the case and found that he had “admitted concealing a romantic relationship with a Chinese national with known ties to the Chinese Communist Party.”
“Under Secretary Rubio’s leadership, we will maintain a zero-tolerance policy for any employee who is caught undermining our country’s national security,” Pigott said. The statement has not identified the diplomat but he and his girlfriend were seen in a video posted online by conservative James O’Keefe.
The Chinese government spokesperson declined to comment on the subject they said was a domestic US issue. “But I would like to stress that we oppose drawing lines based on ideological difference and maliciously smearing China,” the Foreign Ministry’s Guo Jiakun said in a daily briefing.
