Two men charged with spying for China

Dunno about probably, but certainly possibly.

Either way, it suggests that he's guilty and he's either topped himself because he knew the game was up or, as you say, the Chinese did for him before he could talk.

Interesting.

China certainly does have a spy network. It's got military satellites scanning every square inch of the US of A, so no need for weather balloons. Where you and many who influence you go wrong with China though is their motives. The classic error is to imagine the Chinese think like Western powers think. They absolutely do not. The basic philosophical position of Chinese regarding war is that war is a lose - lose situation. This comes from two sources. There is the ancient Confucian philosophy which is still just as relevant today in modern China just as our Christian church and our celebration of Christmas is, and then there is their century of humiliation where war brought them to their knees, and during the latter part where Mao was a warrior mindset and many felt they did too much fighting and not enough production. There was the great famine which almost wiped them out, so they are very careful now. They also learn from History and see how the two world wars destroyed the so-called greatest empire on earth.

So China's motive is two-fold. They are strongly motivated to stop war happening, and that means right from the very seed of the disagreement between countries, and the other motive is to be the slickest and best in industry via fair competition. They see power as the power of their industry and commerce. They play fairly, but where they get their advantage is through strong academia.

Now if you consider all of this to be true, and I have no reason to lie to you, then you can reason that the spying they do is to facilitate these two things. They want good political relations and good industrial relations. They would prefer to increase trade with the UK in a win-win scenario, where we benefit and they do. In order to achieve these goals they need to understand our political system. This is why they have these research groups. Their remit is to foster better UK-China relations. For example if the UK is upset about something to do with China then they want to know what has upset them, so they can correct it. It's the trick of nipping things in the bud. The reason they spy is they don't get a frank discussion with British politicians and civil servants. As you are likely aware many are corrupt and many lie about most things. Actually Chinese private companies have the same approach. If the customer is ever niggled about anything they want to know so they can pass on the word to the factory floor. Remember, their strategy is all about beating everyone else by better performance. Think Eastern martial art. It's very disciplined.

This is your problem. Here is the situation with steel and aluminium production.

You don't have any answers. You are as witless as Biden and his tariffs.