US v. China, Round 1

Just the other night, I was reading a news report of the Chinese spy ring in Los Angeles. The authorities recently busted up a spy ring of two naturalized citizens and a foreign national which had successfully transferred copius amounts of sensitive information, including the Navy's Aegis system, to the Chinese governent. I observed, and mused to my colleagues, that the PRC has the upper hand in the espionage game: as a totalitarian regime, it can easily do away with perpetrators with little or no scrutiny. The United States, on the other hand, constrained by the rules of the "civilized western world," is obligated to conduct the affair in an open and transparent manner - trials and such.

Apparently my pragmatism is contagious.