I have expressed considerable skepticism about Wang's story, but honestly, all the people who are like 'a professional spy would never do X' or 'an unqualified person would never be given X task' - have you ever looked at the history of *US* spookdom, let alone the PRC?
here are some things that actual, for-certain MSS agents have done *in my company.* a) complained that the Russians used to get to train women specifically for sex and 'we don't get that'
b) got piss-drunk and cried about how everybody else in the goverment hates them
c) repeatedly asked 'What would you think if I was a spy?'
(one of these is the same guy twice, one is not)
Now, of course, a lot of people who are at best peripherally connected to the sec/int world also boast/exaggerate about their connection - and actual spooks do the same about their achievements, especially in that hint-hint storytelling way.
I'm not even talking about the American side here, though I will encourage you to read FP and Yahoo's reporting on how the CIA screwed up its online security through outsourcing
But here's a case of someone whistleblowing *massive* secrets that his home country had a record of killing to protect: Mordechai Vanunu. As it happens, my family was quite close to him at one point (through his Australian sojourn)
Vanunu (who is a hero, I should note, and has suffered greatly and unjustly) was also a *mess* - and the whistleblowing was arranged through personal contacts, required considerable smoothing of ego, etc.
Right in the middle of this, because he was bored and lonely, the Israelis were able to *lure him out of safety* with a honeytrap to Italy, where they kidnapped him. People don't behave rationally or logically under stress.
There are good reasons to be skeptical, particularly of the scope and range of the claims. But 'this is fucked-up and amateur' - that's *spying,* as the reading will tell you.
Spies aren't uber-competent; at best they're people operating within large bureaucracies that are interlaced - especially in authoritarian states - with personal and political interests, carrying out tasks that are frequently dependent upon a peripheral and shady world.
The bit of Wang's story that absolutely rings truest is 'I was over-promoted because of my random skill in a side area that my boss' wife valued.'
