Secretary of State Marco Rubio moved to fire a U.S. Foreign Service officer after the diplomat was caught on hidden camera admitting that he concealed a romantic relationship with a Chinese national whose father had ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
The officer, identified in the undercover footage as Daniel Choi, acknowledged that he was required to disclose the relationship to State Department security officials but chose not to do so.
“I defied my government for love,” Choi said in the video released by O’Keefe Media Group.
Choi also said the woman’s father was either a provincial or federal education official in China and described him as “straight-up Communist Party.”
Asked whether his girlfriend could have been involved in espionage, Choi responded that she “could have been a spy,” while adding that he did not know whether she actually was.
The video was originally published in August 2025.
After reviewing the matter, Rubio recommended Choi’s removal. The White House subsequently reviewed the case and approved the termination, according to State Department statements reported by multiple outlets.
A State Department spokesperson said Choi had admitted concealing a relationship that he was obligated to report.
“The Foreign Service Officer admitted to concealing a romantic relationship with a Chinese national,” the department said, adding that Choi himself had acknowledged the woman “could have been a spy” and that her father was affiliated with the Communist Party.
The department said Choi’s dismissal was carried out under authority reinforced by President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14211, signed in February 2025.
The order, titled “One Voice for America’s Foreign Relations,” states that federal employees responsible for implementing U.S. foreign policy operate under presidential authority and that failure to faithfully implement that policy can result in professional discipline, including dismissal.
According to the State Department, Choi’s case marked the first time the department had used the executive order as the basis for terminating a Foreign Service officer.
State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Tommy Pigott said the department would maintain a “zero-tolerance policy” toward employees whose conduct jeopardizes national security.
The underlying concern in Choi’s case was not simply that he was dating a foreign national, but that he allegedly failed to report a relationship involving someone with potential connections to a foreign government regarded by U.S. officials as a major counterintelligence threat.
Foreign Service personnel with security clearances are subject to disclosure requirements concerning certain close and continuing relationships with foreign nationals. Such rules are intended to allow security officials to assess whether a relationship could expose an employee to pressure, coercion or intelligence recruitment.
In the undercover recording, Choi acknowledged that he knew he was supposed to report information about the woman.
“I was supposed to, whatever, sort of report what I knew about her,” Choi said, while explaining that he considered the requirement unfair.
The video did not establish that the woman was a Chinese intelligence operative, and Choi did not claim to have evidence that she was engaged in espionage. His remark that she “could have been a spy” was speculative.
What proved consequential for his employment was his admission that he knowingly failed to disclose the relationship despite security rules requiring him to do so.
Rubio, a former Florida senator who became secretary of state at the beginning of Trump’s second administration, has made countering Chinese influence and espionage a major component of the department’s national-security policy.
Trump’s February executive order also gave Rubio broader authority to revise Foreign Service personnel procedures, including recruiting, performance, evaluation and retention policies, in an effort to ensure that employees carry out the administration’s foreign-policy directives.
The Choi case provided an early test of that authority.
After Rubio initiated the removal process and the White House reviewed the circumstances, the State Department terminated Choi’s employment.
The department characterized the decision as both a personnel matter and a national-security action, arguing that Foreign Service officers entrusted with sensitive information must comply with disclosure requirements involving relationships that could create counterintelligence vulnerabilities.
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