The Chinese have the population numbers and knowledge to brute force solutions, so I doubt they need to spy that much. Sure they have copied and produced their own variations of things like the military jet J-31 being similar to the F35, but the sheer number of Huawei's 5G patents, shows China are also capable of leap frogging in technological terms as the recent Chinese 7nm cpu appearing in some phones has also demonstrated, something US sanctions hoped to curtail.<p>I think this article is just Pro-European press offering support to the UK, by highlighting this "Chinese spying in Westminster" story to those of an easily led nationalist persuasion, as it also serves European interests to highlight the Chinese as spying, whilst not drawing any attention Western spying via big businesses, something Fifa's Sepp Blatter obviously wasn't aware of.