Daniel Choi, a U.S. Foreign Service officer stationed at the American Embassy in Beijing, was carrying on a concealed romantic relationship with Joi Zao, a Chinese national whose father is a senior CCP-connected official. On hidden camera, Choi told undercover journalists he knew exactly what he was doing. His words: "I defied my government for love."
Secretary of State Marco Rubio's response was considerably less romantic.
Rubio issued the immediate termination of Choi on July 4th — a fitting day to remind federal employees that the oath they took wasn't optional. The firing is believed to be the first of its kind under a policy banning romantic and sexual relationships between U.S. government personnel in China and Chinese citizens, a rule introduced during the late Biden administration that apparently nobody bothered to enforce until now.
The whole affair — and yes, that's the right word — came to light thanks to James O'Keefe and his O'Keefe Media Group, which published an undercover report on August 6, 2025, catching Choi on camera admitting to the relationship and the cover-up. The State Department announced his dismissal on October 8, 2025, but the formal termination paperwork from Rubio landed this week.
State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott made the administration's position clear, stating that Rubio's State Department would maintain "zero tolerance for employees caught undermining national security." No committee hearing. No administrative leave with pay while they "investigated." No six-month review period. Zero tolerance meant zero tolerance.
The broader context here matters. On February 12, 2025, the White House issued the "One Voice for America's Foreign Relations" order, a directive designed to remind the sprawling State Department bureaucracy that they work for the elected president, not the other way around. Choi's firing is the sharpest example yet of what that order looks like in practice. You don't get to freelance your love life with foreign intelligence-adjacent nationals while holding a security clearance and expect a stern talking-to.
Now, defenders of the permanent bureaucracy will argue this is heavy-handed. That Choi's relationship was personal, not professional. That firing someone over who they date sets a chilling precedent. Except Choi wasn't dating a barista in Georgetown. He was dating the daughter of a senior CCP-connected official while working inside the U.S. Embassy in Beijing — the single most sensitive diplomatic posting on earth when it comes to Chinese espionage. The policy exists because this exact scenario is how intelligence services have recruited assets for centuries. A romantic entanglement with a foreign national connected to a hostile government isn't a personal choice. It's a textbook counterintelligence vulnerability. See also former Congressman Eric Swalwell, who fell for a similar honeypot scheme by the CCP.
The fact that this ban existed under the Biden administration but nobody got fired for violating it tells you everything about how the previous team treated national security protocols — as suggestions, not rules. It took a new Secretary of State to look at an openly admitted violation caught on camera and do the obvious thing.
Choi said he defied his government for love. Rubio's State Department defied that logic with a pink slip. The policy was already on the books. Someone finally read it.