Commentary
Chinese spy balloons are one small part of an enormous, “whole of society” decades-long espionage campaign that communist China has been conducting against the United States. And unfortunately, it has been successful.
As with most intelligence operations, it’s a mix of technical and human platforms that aim to obtain (by any means) other countries’ secrets. However, China operates on a completely different scale.
It’s not just the Ministry of State Security (MSS) deploying officers to recruit spies.
China’s 2017 National Intelligence Law explicitly requires all Chinese companies and citizens to assist: “An organization or citizen shall support, assist in and cooperate in national intelligence work in accordance with the law and keep confidential the national intelligence work that it or he knows. The state shall protect the individual organization that has supported, assisted in, or cooperated in national intelligence work.”…