In the week since the Trump administration evicted the Chinese consulate in Houston, American leftists have begun to echo China’s assertion that allegations of intensive espionage by the communist country are overblown. The Intercept’s Mary Hvistendahl, who in the past has reported from Shanghai for Science magazine and other publications, for instance has characterized China’s reported activities as “hardly an imminent threat to U.S. national security that would require closing a consulate.” She nonetheless had to concede some extent of “technology transfer or intellectual property theft” by China in the recent past. Hvistendahl and others who oppose ousting the consulate...
