You want the real truth? It’s China - not their intelligence agency, but their economy.

They are everywhere. They’re building ports and modernising mines in Africa to put them in debt trap. They have been buying out international journalism - one reporter or one channel at a time. They’re getting to alter next generation’s viewpoint towards China by investing in schools in Canada (yup, you read it right. Many Canadian schools and high schools get Chinese donations and some redditors here were dumbfounded to find his kid’s essay topic was how China is shaping for better future Canada; and more related stuff). Their local manufacturing, production, logistics ecosystem is so greater than other countries that even all countries isolate them, they would survive on their own. They have been playing geopolitics very well for past two decades. They have recently been the leader in AI researches and patents. If you attend international AI conferences and/or seek investments in the related field, there will be at least two Chinese eagerly waiting to get your idea and listen to the nitty-gritty of your business models. The only one thing they lack is a bigger and better arms race compared to US. Find me one country on the map in which none of politics, education, cultures, technology is influenced, affected, threatened, invested or controlled by China at all, I’ll wait. Next generation espionage is economic conquest, mate.