Would you be surprised if China had an intelligence network in the US? I don't think any major country would be surprised - the "great game" is as active as ever...
I guess the argument is not just about US "happily admitts to having some enormous spy network in China", but about accuse other countries spy on US as if its a crime while US is very happy to do the same thing to other countries.
As analogy, you can accuse others stealing when yourself can stand on a moral ground of not stealing.
Or you can steal but then don't accuse others. That's fine because you don't see stealing is a crime based on your value. "great game" is as active as ever, every body is doing this.
But if you accuse others stealing while happily admit you steal all the time and in very large scale, then there will be surprise, not for every body but for some body.
"you" means anybody, could be "me", "s/he". No offense
Espionage is a crime in most (all?) countries though?
Part of the "game" is pretending that you're not involved in espionage despite all players knowing that it occurs. Morals don't really come into it, since there is no reward for having the most "fair" intelligence agencies.
As analogy, you can accuse others stealing when yourself can stand on a moral ground of not stealing.
Or you can steal but then don't accuse others. That's fine because you don't see stealing is a crime based on your value. "great game" is as active as ever, every body is doing this.
But if you accuse others stealing while happily admit you steal all the time and in very large scale, then there will be surprise, not for every body but for some body.
"you" means anybody, could be "me", "s/he". No offense