What US intelligence believes

The intelligence picture sits on a classified foundation. US agencies believe Alice Huang, a Shanghai-based executive and former head of Singapore computing company Megaspeed, is an asset recruited by Chinese intelligence to spy on behalf of Beijing.

Officials who surveilled her concluded she had been passing information to Beijing. The intelligence itself is classified, and the body that carried out the surveillance is not publicly known. US intelligence also believes there is no family tie: Alice Huang is no relation of Nvidia's founder, Jensen Huang.

• •Alice Huang is believed to have been recruited by Chinese intelligence services
• •Surveillance concluded she was passing information to Beijing
• •The surveilling body is unknown, and the intelligence is classified
• •Alice Huang and Jensen Huang are believed not to be related

The memo and the Alaska invitation

The government timeline runs longer than the public one. The president was reportedly briefed last year about US intelligence surveillance of Alice Huang, and in the spring a classified memo warning of the relationship was drafted under the supervision of secretary of state Marco Rubio.

The memo came to a head in May, when Trump issued a last-minute invitation for Jensen Huang to board Air Force One in Alaska with a delegation of executives bound for China. A US government official told the New York Times that when Rubio learned Huang would be joining the trip in Alaska, he briefed Trump on the memo there.

Trump addressed the matter on Monday. He said he had not known about the relationship at the time of the trip, said the FBI had been investigating a matter relating to Huang, and described the Nvidia chief as an "honourable guy" who "built a great American company".

The relationship and Megaspeed

The intelligence rests on a relationship reported last month by the New York Times: that Jensen Huang had formed a close relationship with Alice Huang, a former Megaspeed executive.

Megaspeed matters to Washington because of what the company does. It is a customer of Nvidia, buying Nvidia chips and renting computing space to Chinese companies. The US government was already investigating whether Megaspeed could be flouting US restrictions and smuggling chips into China - allegations that both Nvidia and Megaspeed deny.

Nvidia, for its part, has appointed outside counsel to review the relationship, and says it has no reason to believe that secrets or national security were compromised.

Experts split on how recruitment works

Two specialists, speaking separately to the reporter, differ on how Alice Huang may have been drawn in.

Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute, pointed to Beijing's track record. "The Chinese have a very strong pedigree for industrial espionage and copying other nations' technologies", he said, adding that China's focus is now AI rather than engines.

Nigel Inkster, former director of operations and intelligence for the British Secret Intelligence Service, saw a likelier sequence: "the MSS would have recruited her after they became aware of her relationship with Huang, not before". He noted that business delegations travelling abroad can be tasked with gathering information, and so can visiting academics.

The legal backdrop sharpens the picture: the MSS is now bigger than the CIA, and Chinese national security laws allow Chinese nationals to be required to assist the state.

Where things stand

Trump is due to meet Xi Jinping later this month. China has rejected the claims that Alice Huang was a spy.