Chinese intelligence and spying (catch all)

[bourbon]

However, despite all these instances that are cited both proven and rumored; how big a problem is Chinese espionage actually?

Massive. The cyber-warfare issue may or may not be hyped or exaggerated; the cyber-espionage issue is not being exaggerated.

These people invent nothing these days and steal everything. It is the greatest transfer of wealth in history – the director of the NSA has said as much.

I'm also skeptical from all I've been hearing about in terms of the PRC's espionage efforts. Since they seem limited in their ability to infiltrate/subvert organizations. Because the Chinese diaspora and cyber intel collection amongst others only goes so far IMO.

Don't be. They have money and they know how to use it; the PRC money has been pumping money into our political system for years to both parties.

Cyber-espionage can go pretty damn far if you stop and think about it. We might be better off printing out every government and corporate secret that we have and just dumping it all into China, just to confuse the SOBs. The NSA has come out and said that some form of computer compromise is the new normal, and that no system is secure – even their own.

Also the US gives the nation of Israel the right to steal whatever the hell it wants in our country; and since the nation of Israel exports little of value other than military technology, Israel inevitably sells its stolen technology to China.

So does the PRC really have that big of a global/western spy operation or is it being hyped to be something larger then it really is?

I think we are only now seeing the tip of the iceberg. The full ramifications wont be seen for decades to come.