It goes like this:
Chinese intelligence identifies equipment component stream of classified US systems electronics and sets about inserting altered components containing hardware bots into the end products.
US purchases from US GSA-approved vendor. GSA approved vendor outsources parts manufacturing to licensed manufactures in other countries. The licensed manufacturers orders some component chips from suppliers who blend in Chinese counterfeit chips for remarkable price reductions. The counterfeit chips are fronted by PLA-influenced manufacturers offering components to these ~specific~ buyers at too-good-to-be-true pricing. Chinese bots are now the GSA-approved product.
And that is one way how the PLA gets hardware bots inside classified US systems.
No, it goes like this, as often observed in the non-military procurement chain, now (not surprisingly) being seen in cots programs etc:
Chinese contract manufacturers produce wafers for parts from "fabless" manufacturers from their masks.
They may make 100 thousand or easily as many as 500 thousand extra parts accidentally when a PO was canceled.
When scrapping those parts, they walk out the back door to someone's wive's brother's dad's distribution company in Taiwan or Singapore.
So far, it's one legit company doing contract work for one OEM, and one sleight of hand from a shady dude thrice removed.
--back to Justa's flow-- US purchases from US GSA-approved vendor. GSA approved vendor outsources parts manufacturing to licensed manufactures in other countries. The licensed manufacturers orders some component chips from suppliers who blend in "Chinese counterfeit" chips for remarkable price reductions. The counterfeit chips are fronted by legitimate manufacturers offering components to these ~specific~ buyers at too-good-to-be-true pricing. Identical counterfeit parts are now the GSA-approved product. --back out--
And that is one way how an industrious chinese con-men sell perfectly good parts (that would've otherwise been thrown away) inside classified US systems.
See? No chinese PLA 007's, car chases, involved or espionage mind control heat rays required!!!
This happens all the time, and it ought to be costing the OEM's billions. But in many cases the parts were overbuilt because they were EOL'd and the OEM wouldn't have made any money off the scrapped parts anyhow.
"PLA Bots" are not in resistors and capacitors, and anyway, the former has not been found or reported, the latter HAS BEEN FOUND and REPORTED, and thus, Occam prefers the latter.
Where all of that is plausible, it has nothing to do with placing a microprocessor inside of a single transistor, which is what the original post is proposing.
Additionally, just because something is plausible does not mean it is likely. The Chinese made fakes I have seen so far are only partially functional. This is because, the Chinese do not have the technology (yet) to make high end wafers. They can make modem chips, WiFi chips, etc, but they cannot copy an Intel processor at this point.