I interviewed Nick Eftiamedes backintheday for a script. Prolly 2002 or so. Read the book, which was eight years old at the time. None of this is new.
Basic Chinese intelligence approach is to remind everyone traveling abroad that they're a Chinese citizen and if they're not doing it for China, they're not a good citizen and their family and friends will be reminded of that. Chinese citizens are given opportunities to prove their good standing ("go tour the Hershey factory and take a lot of pictures") and provided examples of other citizens who need reminding of the importance of China ("Zihao should be reminded to stop bringing shame to his country and family"). In 1994, the CIA estimated that the MSS was a tenth as capable as the CIA but had 20x the operatives.
The Western intelligence paradigm is "there's spies, and there's normies" while the Chinese intelligence paradigm is "everyone you can trust will spy, everyone you can't is an enemy."