> zero public evidence of this

is a bit of a streach, given the reporting, intel briefings, comments from members of congress after the briefings, etc...

> zero public evidence of this

yet it was an open secret among those in the know, both the affairs and the export violations

People who have worked in the national security sector in the US know how China operates. Any Chinese tech personage who is not a CCP spy but who somehow rises to a position of international influence will be recruited to work for the CCP by being made an offer they cannot refuse. In a typical case, there is plenty of evidence but most of it will never be made public for security reasons.

Of course China always denies this, but the evidence for this behavior over thousands of cases is such that the burden of proof is on those who claim such a person was not a spy.

This does not imply that the Chinese people or even its government are "evil" or that we shouldn't do business with them. It's just something that everybody who deals with China needs to be aware of.

I think my pedantic gripe here is that I don't see the people who are made offers they can't refuse by China and are Chinese citizens as "spies" as conventionally defined - they are generally not pretending to be anything other than Chinese business people, and business people passing info along or being asked to do things for/by government don't really make them "spies" IMO - at least not until they've changed citizenship or are working directly in something sensitive. Starting a business in another country to serve the interests of the home country with home country money is more akin to the British East India Company or something like that than being a secret agent as I see it.