The people I hired were likely not spies, although I cannot know for certain. The characteristics of the security check were such that, a nominal effort on the part of any operatives to falsify their actual status vis a vis active duty in the PLA or intel ops combined with their "legend" (e.g. public career profile) would likely not have been detected by the screen. With the exception of direct DoD contractors under tighter controls, the vast majority of US corporations do not, as a goal, seek to prevent hostile military or intel ops from being hired. They have not even considered the threat, let alone taken action against it. Therefore, at corporations who are themselves often non-DoD controlled suppliers to DoD primes, or, are simple commercial firms, the opportunity for hostile operatives to have been embedded is immense. Benes to the Communist powers are not only industrial epsionage of prescribed, export controlled dual use items, but also, placement of ops who now have access to key financial data systems and IT systems, and who can effect massive economic or cyber attack on command. War by other means - classic Sun Tzu thought.
Ping. Food for thought. Consider the numbers of H1Bs who are PRC nationals (not to mention ones from other nations I do not trust). Among them must be active duty PLA or intel ops. In many large multinationals in the US, and other Western countries, some of them have write access to key finanacial data and other corporate IT systems. Consider the possibilities. Thank God Japan, Taiwan and a few other allies do not allow such sloppy hiring to go on in their own corporations - those allies may be the only thing up and running (in limp-along mode) if a worst case non conventional cyber / economic attack happens.