THE SUNDAY TIMES reports that an aide of Gordon Brown has been caught in a suspected Chinese honeytrap.

An unnamed 'senior Downing Street adviser' who accompanied the much-maligned prime minister on a trip to China earlier this year, had his Blackberry stolen after a Chinese woman approached him in a Shanghai hotel night-club.

The gentleman reported the device missing, after taking the woman back to his hotel for the rest of the evening.

We understand Mahjong is a favourite past-time of Chinese citizens.

The aide has been informally reprimanded.

This theft has followed a number of high-profile cases where data from government departments have been lost, stolen or misplaced.

According to the Times' 'security experts' even if sensitive data wasn't included within the device, the mail server information may provide Chinese hackers with useful information.

The INQ has spoken to an ex-pat living in China who has disputed the claims, saying that this is a common tactic of standard 'semi-prostitutes' that are simply out to steal anything they can to make an easier living.

He went as far as stating that the person would be ignorant to take someone back to their hotel and not safe-guard their possessions, and that the local police authority would simply ignore the theft claiming 'stupidity'.

Now surely those attributes can't be attributed to a senior government official? µ