How an American single mother became an informer for Chinese spies

When Candace Claiborne arrived in Beijing in November 2009 to work for the US State Department, her employer was already on edge.

The American embassy had just moved from a building at the heart of the city’s diplo­matic district to a 10-acre walled compound further from the centre, a US$434 million fortress that projected both power and fear. The complex featured shatterproof glass, multiple checkpoints and a moat.

To prevent Chinese agents from bugging offices, whole sections of the building had been shipped in from America, a tactic used previously when several floors of the United States embassy in Moscow had to be razed following a breach in the 1980s. Even with all the safeguards, it turned out that two American construc­tion workers had passed details about the building to China’s intelligence services.

The news rattled Washington, which was watching China’s rapid economic and political rise with trepidation. The work environment Claiborne would inhabit for the next three years included frequent security briefings and warnings about the cunning of China’s intelligence services. “I always tell the men, ‘Go look in the mirror. No beautiful woman, attractive woman, goes up to 50-year-old men,’” said one State Department official.

Though the embassy’s security staff had much to worry about, Claiborne was not an obvious source of concern. A 53-year-old mother of four grown children, Claiborne had the poise and manner of someone used to disciplined work. As a young woman she had dreamed of becoming a baller­ina, and worked toward this goal with such dedication that she was admitted to the prestigious Washington School of Ballet.

She came from a family committed to service – one brother went into the air force and another into the FBI – but Claiborne decided to follow her dream, and packed up her leotards to move to New York. She had some small victories, but the dance world was cutthroat and sustained success eluded her.