In 1964, a young French embassy accountant in Beijing met a fascinating Chinese opera singer at a holiday gathering. What began as a secret romance rapidly evolved into a 20-year espionage operation involving stolen government documents, an adopted child, and an astonishing physical deception.
This prolonged relationship between Bernard Boursicot and Shi Pei Pu caused a massive international scandal when the shocking truth finally emerged in a French courtroom. The situation involved classified intelligence, a fabricated family, and a complex deception that eventually moved over 8,000 kilometers (4,970 miles) from Asia to Europe.
A Secret Romance in Beijing
Bernard Boursicot was a 20-year-old accountant working at the newly opened French embassy in Beijing. At a December Christmas party, he met Shi Pei Pu, a 26-year-old performer and language teacher.
Shi, who was dressed in men’s clothing at the time, told Boursicot that he was actually a woman forced to live as a male to satisfy his father’s strict demands for a son. Fully believing this claim, Boursicot initiated an intimate relationship with Shi. They kept their encounters strictly in the dark to maintain the physical deception.
Espionage and Stolen Documents
The Chinese government soon discovered the illicit relationship. Officials used this sensitive information to pressure Boursicot into stealing classified diplomatic materials. Between 1969 and 1979, while stationed in Beijing and later in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Boursicot secretly handed over more than 500 confidential embassy documents to Shi.
During this intense period of espionage, Shi introduced Boursicot to a four-year-old boy named Shi Du Du. Shi deliberately convinced the French diplomat that the young child was their biological son.
Arrest and Medical Examinations
In 1982, Boursicot arranged for Shi and the boy to legally relocate to Paris, France. The French authorities arrested Boursicot for espionage on June 30, 1983, and detained Shi shortly after. While in police custody, the complete truth finally unraveled.
French medical examiners discovered that Shi was biologically male. He had hidden his genitals by making his testicles ascend into his body cavity and tucking his penis back. Furthermore, investigators revealed that Shi Du Du was actually a Uyghur child purchased from a family in China’s Xinjiang province.
The Final Court Sentences
Upon learning the absolute truth about his partner and their supposed child, Boursicot attempted suicide in his detention cell but survived the incident. In 1986, a French court formally convicted both men of espionage and sentenced them each to six years in prison.
The following year, the President of France pardoned Shi to defuse political tensions, and Boursicot received a pardon months later. Shi remained in Paris and ultimately died there in 2009 at the age of 70, leaving behind the adopted son he had brought from China.