Beijing accused the United States on Thursday of using spurious spying claims as a pretext to impose a technological “blockade” on China, following claims that Nvidia boss Jensen Huang was the victim of a Chinese espionage plot.

“China’s technological progress is driven by independent innovation and open cooperation. The US side should stop fabricating such ‘spy’ narratives as a pretext for imposing a technological blockade,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning told a regular briefing.

Huang, who co-founded Nvidia and turned it into the world’s leading supplier of the chips that power AI, has admitted to having an extramarital affair, reportedly with Alice Huang.

She is a reported to be a former executive at Singapore-based Megaspeed and is thought by US officials to have worked for Chinese intelligence.

The Nvidia boss has spent years lobbying against curbs on sales of advanced chips to China.

US President Donald Trump last year cleared Nvidia’s H200 chips for export there over objections from hawks in both parties who fear Beijing winning the race to dominate in AI technology.

China has dismissed the claims about spying on Huang as “groundless speculation” and “an attempt to smear China”.

The furore comes ahead of a meeting next week between Trump and President Xi Jinping at the APEC gathering in Shenzhen in southern China.