前间谍疑云主角施蓉就读哈佛肯尼迪政府学院

前新华社驻多伦多首席记者施蓉今天被加拿大环球邮报曝光正在哈佛读研究生课程，这位曾在2011年掀起加拿大政坛中国间谍风云的女主角，再度进入人们的视野。

Chinese journalist who got flirty e-mails from Canadian MP now studying at Harvard

COLIN FREEZE AND STEVEN CHASE

TORONTO AND OTTAWA — THE GLOBE AND MAIL

The Chinese reporter made famous in Canada for her e-mail exchanges with a smitten Conservative politician has resurfaced at an Ivy League school in the United States.

Shi Rong, formerly the Toronto correspondent for Beijing’s Xinhua news service, is pursuing a postgraduate degree at Harvard University. Two years after she left Canada in a cloud of controversy she now is enrolled at an academic hub for elite foreign bureaucrats and politicians on the rise.

In 2011, Ms. Shi’s close friendship with Mississauga MP Bob Dechert made headlines when their e-mail correspondence was leaked. (“You are so beautiful. I really like the picture of you by the water with your cheeks puffed,” reads one of Mr. Dechert’s e-mails from this period. “That look is so cute, I love it when you do that. ...”)

The relationship caused political fallout, given the 55-year-old Mr. Dechert’s proximity to government secrets – he is a parliamentary secretary in the Foreign Affairs Department – and also because of the much-younger Ms. Shi’s ties to Xinhua, a news organization that Beijing is accused of using sometimes as a cover for intelligence gathering.

The married Mr. Dechert resisted calls for his resignation, saying he had only been “flirtatious” and had done nothing improper. Ms. Shi, who said her e-mail account was hacked and leaked by her jealous husband, was recalled to China.

In June, she started a Facebook account saying she is studying in Cambridge, Mass., at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. This elite institution boasts of several notable policy wonks. Former Liberal Party leader Michael Ignatieff teaches there. Mexico’s Felipe Calderone studied there before becoming president of his country.

Harvard would not confirm Ms. Shi’s enrolment, and The Globe and Mail could not reach her directly. A friend of hers, however, told The Globe she is indeed studying at the Kennedy School, and added that she is contemplating returning to Xinhua after her time in Boston.

A China expert affiliated with the Kennedy School said he knew nothing about Ms. Shi or her story – but argued that her presence could only be a good thing.

“I hope the people from the Xinhua agency come to Harvard and learn something about freedom of the press ... it would be good for the Chinese people in the long run,” journalist Marvin Kalb said in an interview.

The Canadian government has sometimes been wary of the news service. In 2005, a former Xinhua correspondent was kicked out of the Ottawa bureaucracy after she had gained citizenship and sought Top Secret clearance. “As a former employee of Xinhua, [she] may have engaged in intelligence activities on behalf of a foreign state,” reads a written ruling from that case.

Harvard has had some security problems too. In 2000, a man calling himself “Don Heathfield” posed as a Canadian and got a masters degree in public administration from the Kennedy School. A decade later, the U.S. government arrested him as a Russian spy.

He was sent back to Moscow in a swap involving a 10-member ring of “illegal” Russian spies, and Harvard stripped him of his degree.

事件回顾：9月8日，加拿大200多位媒体人和政治家收到了转发的电子邮件，称在2010年4月17日，时任加拿大外交部长国会秘书的鲍勃‧德克特（Bob Dechert）发电邮给中国新华社驻多伦多首席记者施蓉，说“一边开车一边想着你”、“请看电视或上电脑网站看，我会向你微笑。我想念你”等甜言蜜语。53岁的德克特立即回应那只是“抛个媚眼”，两人的关系只是纯友谊。加拿大媒体对此解释并不买账，9月12日，加拿大《国家邮报》引述前加拿大情报战略计划责任人大卫哈里斯（David Harris）的话说，事件没有引起足够的重视，政府不应该单方面听信德克特的解释，而应进行深度调查。加拿大《环球邮报》撰文，认为中国新华社为粗心的西方政治家设置陷阱。德克特目前正负责下一任加拿大最高法院法官的人选，加拿大政府13日重申并不准备变更他的工作。