U.S. State Department Bids Adieu to Waldorf-Astoria Amid Fears of Chinese Snooping
The iconic hotel was purchased by a Chinese firm last year.
When world leaders descend every year on New York City for the opening of the U.N. General Assembly, U.S. diplomats troop en masse to Park Avenue and set up shop at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, their traditional command post for the confab. But, now, the Americans are poised to abandon their swanky digs after the iconic hotel was purchased last year by a Chinese firm. Fears of prying Chinese eyes, the Associated Press reports, have led U.S. officials to turn their back on the Waldorf.
When world leaders descend every year on New York City for the opening of the U.N. General Assembly, U.S. diplomats troop en masse to Park Avenue and set up shop at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, their traditional command post for the confab. But, now, the Americans are poised to abandon their swanky digs after the iconic hotel was purchased last year by a Chinese firm. Fears of prying Chinese eyes, the Associated Press reports, have led U.S. officials to turn their back on the Waldorf.
The Anbang Insurance Group bought the hotel for $1.95 billion in October of last year, and while the previous owner, Hilton Worldwide Holdings, will continue to run the hotel, a major renovation has been planned for the New York landmark. And that has U.S. officials concerned about temporarily basing diplomats there.
In recent years, the United States and China have become intense adversaries in a spy war that most recently saw what U.S. officials claim were Beijing hackers stealing troves of personnel data, including information about background checks and security clearances. Moreover, U.S. spies believe that China frequently uses its large and powerful corporations as a tool to further national security interests. That has led U.S. intelligence agencies to target, for example, the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, which some observers believe has close ties to the People’s Liberation Army.
In the dog-eat-dog world of the U.S.-China intelligence competition, prevailing upon a Chinese insurance company to allow Beijing’s spies to install surveillance equipment in a five-star hotel certainly isn’t the craziest proposition. (Or the renovations could have to do with reports of asbestos at the hotel.)
The decision by U.S. diplomats to leave the Waldorf may also require the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations to abandon her home. For a half century, American emissaries to the world’s body have lived in an apartment in the Waldorf Tower, but according to the Associated Press “it was not immediately clear” whether Samantha Power will packing up her belongings and moving elsewhere.
Perhaps there’s some spymaster in Beijing secretly relishing the thought of imposing the horribly mundane, awfully irritating inconvenience of a move upon the human rights advocate who has spoken out against Beijing’s record of abuses.
Photo credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
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