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<\/a><\/p>\nCredit Asaf Hanuka<\/p>\n
Many years ago, the F.B.I. coined an acronym, MICE, to describe the motivations of the spy. This stands for Money, Ideology, Compromise and Ego. All spies, it is argued, are drawn into espionage by some combination of these factors.<\/p>\n
Gary Shang, a long-term Chinese Communist mole within the C.I.A. and the protagonist of Ha Jin\u2019s latest novel, fits uneasily into this template: Greed, it seems, plays only a minor part in his motivation, though it is money that eventually leads to his exposure; his adherence to his native country\u2019s ideology is habitual more than passionate; he is pressured to continue spying by a veiled threat to his family in China, but he is never openly coerced; his ego is tempered by self-doubt.<\/p>\n
Gary\u2019s nebulous motivations make him more believable than most fictional spies. He simply drifts into the espionage world and gets stuck there. For long periods, nothing much happens to him. In this, Gary\u2019s story is close to that of many real spies: Moles tend to burrow inside the system and then lie dormant, often for years. Gary Shang is unobtrusive, unremarkable and rather dull \u2014 important attributes in a genuine spy, but less than gripping in a fictional one.<\/p>\n
We meet Weimin Shang in Shanghai in 1949 as a young, newly married Communist, a graduate of Tsinghua University recruited to infiltrate the spy networks of the retreating Chinese Nationalists. He isn\u2019t very skilled at spycraft. He can\u2019t shoot straight or dismantle a bomb, but he speaks good English, and thus is detailed to infiltrate an American cultural agency, a covert C.I.A. offshoot. He changes his name to Gary, \u201cwhich sounded savvy and fashionable for a young Chinese man.\u201d \u201cWhy are you interested in this kind of work, Mr. Shang?\u201d one of his superiors asks. \u201cI need to eat and have to take whatever is available,\u201d he replies tamely. James Bond, he isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
By BEN MACINTYRE \u00a0NOV. 7, 2014 Credit As … Continue reading
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