China diplos booted

Drove onto Spec. Ops base in Va.

Two Chinese diplomats were secretly kicked out of the United States after driving onto a military base in Virginia — the first such expulsions in more than 30 years, according to a report on Sunday.

The Chinese Embassy officials were stopped in September at a base in Norfolk that is home to Special Operations forces, after they were chased by military personnel, according to The New York Times.

At least one is believed to be an intelligence officer operating under diplomatic cover, the Times said, citing six people with knowledge of the expulsions.

The officials had been with their wives when they drove up to a checkpoint at the base, and were only allowed in to make a U-turn to immediately leave again, the report said.

They instead continued driving into the base, evading military personnel and only stopping when they were blocked by firetrucks, the newspaper said.

The diplomats claimed they did not understand the guard’s English instructions and had gotten lost, but officials believe they were testing security there to perhaps later dispatch other intelligence officers, the Times said.

The diplomats were then expelled from the US — the first known expulsion of Chinese diplomats since 1987 and a move that was not announced by either Washington or Beijing, according to the Times.

Weeks after the episode, on Oct. 16, the US State Department implemented restrictions on the activities of Chinese diplomats, the Times reported, including the requirement of advance notice when visiting with local or state officials.

A senior State Department official at the time told reporters the announcement was made in response to similar requirements placed on American diplomats in China, where they need permission to travel outside their host cities, the report said.

The expulsion comes during ongoing tensions between the US and China amid a trade war.

However, China has not retaliated by kicking out American diplomats —and a source told the paper that employees at the Chinese Embassy in Washington were surprised their colleagues did something so “brazen,” the Times said.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry and Chinese Embassy in Washington did not respond to the paper’s requests for comment.

The State Department and the FBI — which oversees counterintelligence in the US — also declined to comment, the paper said.