Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's a weird moral element to these discussions though. Lots of people think this is "wrong," or that the CIA is accusing the Chinese intelligence services of doing something wrong, whereas other people admit that all countries play the game and simply are showing this as a legitimate threat. That confusion between morality and cold threat analysis confounds a lot of national security discussions.
> simply are showing this as a legitimate threat The issue is with the perspective, China is certainty a "legitimate threat" to the US, at least from a technological perspective, the problem is that China IS NOT a threat to the rest of the world or at least not in the same degree it is to the hegemonic power of the US, meanwhile the US indeed IS a technological and military threat to countries around the globe, so wh…
The Chinese army set up a major base in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa just a few years ago. It is the PLAN's first overseas military base and was built at a cost of US$590 million. I'm sure it won't be the last.
If China can do what US can, they will do it. To think otherwise would just be naive.