I spy

For some time now, people have warned that the historic Palace of WestminsterWhere the UK's House of Commons and House of Lords meet. is infested with mice. Little did they know it had also been infiltrated by a rat.

Over the weekend, the Sunday Times named a parliamentary aideAssistants to officials and politicians in parliament. who was arrested on charges of being a Chinese spy in March. He had been working at the centre of British democracy for years.

It is not the first time China has been accused of espionageSpying.. In January, it floated a 60m spy balloon over the United States.

But some think it is silly to be in such an uproar. They say everyone knows that countries spy on each other. The fact China keeps getting caught is probably a good sign: it means it is not all that good at it.

Spying has always been a part of life, going back thousands of years. Military theorist Sun TzuA Chinese military general and philosopher who lived in the Eastern Zhou period. , writing in the 4th Century BC, wrote that a good commander needed spies in the enemy ranks to relay their plans and spread misinformationIncorrect or misleading information unintentionally presented as fact. It can be contrasted with disinformation or deliberate lies. about his own forces.

But modern espionage goes back to Francis Walsingham, spymaster of Elizabeth I of England. He maintained a vast network of foreign agents, stretching as far as IstanbulA major city in Turkey, crossing both Europe and Asia. . He was also adept at internal surveillance, exposing a plot to overthrow Elizabeth and replace her with Mary, Queen of ScotsThe Queen of Scotland from 1542 to 1567. She was the cousin of Elizabeth I. .

These days, espionage takes place on a vast scale. Spies abroad recruit double agents in terrorist organisations and foreign governments. At home, they cast a wide net of surveillance to spot and disrupt terror attacks. And they engage in a constant shadow cyberwar to defend digital infrastructureThe basic systems and services that a country needs to keep it going..

Some think we should treat spies in the same way as soldiers. We do not judge soldiers for killing because we believe they are doing it for a purpose: to keep us safe. Maybe what spies do is immoral in itself, but it is for the greater good.

Moreover, they argue, spies often do what they do for lofty ideals. They are patriotic people who genuinely want to keep ordinary people safe from foreign and terror threats.

Some have been motivated by more personal beliefs. Kim PhilbyA member of the Cambridge Five, a spy ring which gave British secrets to the Soviets during World War Two and parts of the Cold War. , the MI6 double agent who defected to the USSRThe United Socialist Soviet Republic, the USA's main rival in the Cold War before it collapsed and broke up into a number of smaller states in 1991. in 1963, was a genuinely committed communistAn economic system entailing collective ownership of all means of production in contrast with capitalism, which holds that industry and businesses are controlled and run for profit by private owners rather than by the government. who thought he was doing his bit to help the whole human race.

But others say spies often do not have such noble intentions. They argue the intelligence services mostly just want to maintain their own power.

Sometimes this has even meant spying on their own government. In the 1970s, a clique of right-wing MI5 agents even plotted to topple prime minister Harold WilsonThe UK's Labour party prime minister from 1964 to 1970 and 1974 to 1976. , although they probably went no further than spreading damaging stories about him in the press.¹

And far from protecting the public, they argue, they actually put them in harm's way. Agents often recruit ordinary people to spy for them through bribery or blackmail. If these informants are discovered, they can end up being imprisoned, tortured or killed.

In 2021, it emerged that dozens of CIA informants had been exposed in China and Iran. Many of them were executed.²

Yes: Spying is a dirty business that causes the most harm to innocent people who just happen to get in the way. And spies have too much power over the governments they supposedly serve.

No: At the end of the day, espionage makes us all safer. It ensures enemy nations and organisations cannot shut down vital systems, steal our information, or even invade us.

Or... Spying is a fact of life. It has been going on for millennia and for as long as states exist it will carry on. So it is not really a question of whether or not it is moral, but of whether or not it can be done in a more moral way.