US diplomat arrested over China contact

A US diplomat who allegedly took tens of thousands of dollars in cash and gifts from Chinese intelligence agents was charged Wednesday with lying to investigators over those contacts.

The Department of Justice said Candace Marie Claiborne, 60, knew that the two Chinese men she had regular contact with while working for the US State Department in China and other countries were from the Chinese security services, and that the money they gave her was in exchange for US secrets.

She took cash and an iPhone for herself, but most of the funds went to an unidentified man half her age with whom she lived in Beijing and Shanghai.