Good neighbors don't rim fences with glass shards

In a perfect world, countries wouldn't spy on one another, but until that utopian day dawns on us, it is reasonable to expect intelligence collecting to continue as it has since the days of Sun Tzu and Julius Caesar. Knowledge is power, and wanting to know more about rivals, opponents and even friends is common across cultures.

In the case of the United States and China, arguably the two countries with the greatest intelligence collecting ability, there is more espionage equivalence than high moral ground.

The Wire, a decade-old American TV drama series about inner city Baltimore, Maryland, continues to fascinate because it realistically portrays the cat and mouse shenanigans of cops and crooks in a world where constant surveillance and threat of arrest, and the means taken to avoid it, are a way of life. The way two parties seemingly at odds with one another come up with a code to live and let live, despite the fear and mistrust, is not without application to international relations.