Suspected Chinese spies targeted former State official for Venezuela research
Suspected Chinese spies targeted former State official for Venezuela research
Publish Date: 2026-01-27 12:00:00
Source Domain: www.nextgov.com
A suspected Chinese intelligence outfit contacted a former senior State Department officer late last year requesting they draft an assessment of U.S. policy priorities in Venezuela in exchange for payment, Nextgov/FCW has learned.
The former official, who worked in a national security role while employed by the government and requested anonymity to speak candidly about their experience, said they wanted to speak out about the incident to warn other former federal employees, especially those in highly sensitive positions.
A person claiming to be Keven Lee from a firm called Foresight and Strategy contacted the former official. Both Lee and the firm’s name surfaced in research produced by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies that was first reported by Nextgov/FCW in September last year. That research assessed that the firm is part of a nexus of fake companies and websites likely tied to China.
The network has sought to recruit U.S. individuals with policy research experience, especially those who have worked in the government or at think tanks. The former official did not independently assess the group as Chinese-affiliated.
The attempts to gain insights from the former official help highlight the extent to which foreign adversaries are willing to go to extract intelligence from former government employees to aid in painting a picture of rivals’ geopolitical views. It’s also the first known public case in which the Foresight and Strategy network is confirmed to have sought out a former U.S. government employee for sensitive information.
The outreach came amid a U.S. campaign of airstrikes against supposed drug boats off the coast of Venezuela, which legal experts have questioned the justification for. And it occurred just weeks before a major U.S. operation at the turn of the new year ousted Venezuela’s leader Nicolás Maduro from Caracas and brought him to trial in New York.
After a virtual job interview, a purported Foresight and Strategy…
