[papermill]

It does sound comical. Maybe the chinese are getting desperate after the huawei exec got arrested? Or maybe it's just a "setup" to apply pressure on china before the next round of trade talks. Usually espionage/intel related events are kept secret. When it's publicized, it's usually for political/trade/etc reasons.

Just like how china magically found canadian "spies" in their country right after canada arrested one of their executives and used their propaganda apparatus to put pressure on canada.

If this was real serious espionage, I doubt the secret service, cia, etc would release the info so quickly to the media. Does this mean the trade negotiations are not going well? Does it mean it is going well? It'll be interesting to read about the inner workings of the trade negotiations a few decades from now and what historians make of this time. Things like can only be understood in hindsight and never in the moment because we, no more than the chinese people, get to see what is really happening behind the scenes. Everyone gets the massaged and curated "news".