[pavel_lishin]

I'm genuinely less concerned about this, than I am about American Law Enforcement reading my texts.

As an American living in America, the Chinese government doesn't have the power to imprison me, to credibly accuse me of crimes, to confiscate my property. The American one does.

Maybe for American politicians, or other Americans in a position of power - or ones who hold Chinese citizenship, or travel to China often - this is a concern. For me and most of my neighbors, this is just flat-out not any more of a concern than a hundred other things.

[wumeow]

Those Americans with power have influence over your life, and now China has influence over them.

[pavel_lishin]

That's true - but they're already targets for Chinese espionage. This just another vector. And once that I can't do much about this on a personal level.

[rapjr9]

They might blackmail you to get at their higher level targets. Still not much you can do about it, unless you work at AT&T or Verizon or Lumen, or you report the blackmail to the FBI, something most people probably would be extremely uncomfortable doing given our security services tend to suspect anyone who reports anything to them as the first prime suspect. Maybe there is a statistical reason for that, but it also deters any cooperation. And going through channels often is blocked by business/profit concerns. Espionage probably often happens through relatives and friends of VIP's, though that's a guess.