And most of the historical documents containing information that was declassified have still not been released. The Times editorial writers must have been reading the Times. Everybody makes mistakes. But the Times' mistakes on the Chinese espionage story all tended to exaggerate the consequences of the last two decades of espionage and to inflate the Chinese threat. This has dangerous consequences.
Nothing can be further from the truth.
As the leading outlet for unreflective reporting of allegations about Chinese espionage, the New York Times has left much the same impression. A May 29 Time-CNN public opinion poll found that 46 percent of Americans now consider China a serious threat, compared to 24 percent who hold that view of Russia. In this regard, they are the most responsible of the major nuclear powers. CIA, whose classification policies cannot withstand independent scrutiny even within the executive branch, has been particularly vulnerable to this review procedure. And rather than adjust its classification policies, the Agency now seeks to eliminate the independent scrutiny.