I’ve wanted to write this in Chinese for a while but couldn’t find the time.
Being a “spy” in the US (and at least most of the western democracies) is not a crime. In fact, most acts of “spying”, i.e. intelligence collection, are not criminal. The FBI would have absolutely no reason to be chasing Zhang early on in Buffalo, not until he shot an FBI agent. The FBI would be overjoyed to learn of any known spy’s entry into the US. The FBI would monitor him to find other spies. This is in fact how the FBI found most of the “spies” on US soil. Except for the need to stop lost of specific and critical intelligence, the FBI would not take any known “spy” in custody until 2 conditions are met:
1. The known “spy” is not likely to lead them to any more new “spies”.
2. The FBI has collected enough criminal evidence to charge and convict the “spy”.
It is a known and accepted fact that many foreign consulate workers are “spies”, especially for China. Most of these “spies” are protected by diplomatic immunity. When these “spies” are caught committing criminal act, they are expelled rather than prosecuted. That the FBI would take a consulate worker (typically covered by diplomatic immunity) in custody for no excuse at all is total bull shit.
Lastly, the escape through New York’s sewage system is too easy. The level of action around the Chinese Consulate by the FBI and NYPD would guarantee that all points of entry and exit would have been blocked, including the sewage system. The author’s depiction of foreigners makes them all too dumb. The Chinese chauvinism is quite obvious in the book.
I hope this is readable. Only took me about 5 minutes to write in English. Would have taken me at least an hour to write in Chinese. Cheers!