China vs America: the espionage story of our time

Why aren’t spy stories sexy anymore? The revelations last year that Beijing destroyed America’s espionage ring inside China a few years ago, including executing a number of US informants, got a brief flurry of attention and then subsided beneath the waves. News reports of American bureaucrats arrested for passing information to the Chinese have also barely raised eyebrows. Now the ex-CIA agent suspected of being the mole that led to the collapse of America’s spy operations in China has been arrested, though on a lesser charge of simply possessing classified information. How long before Americans turn back to Donald Trump’s tweets or the latest #MeToo charges? And why don’t more people seem to care that China appears so successful at stealing US secrets and turning Americans into spies?

Espionage was at the heart of the Cold War, captivating millions in fact and fiction. The allure of the CIA has never disappeared, despite the agency’s numerous failures, not least foreseeing the collapse of the Soviet Union itself.