What does not ring true, Mr Stewart?

Comments on Cameron Stewart "Stern Hu spy call does not ring true", 10/07/2009, http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25759160-5013871,00.html

The following is his article in The Australian.


CHINA'S allegations that Australian citizen and Rio Tinto employee Stern Hu is involved in espionage and stealing state secrets are almost certainly baseless.
If they were not - and Mr Hu were a spy for the Australian government - these events would be most unlikely to have unfolded in the public domain.
The biggest clue that Mr Hu is not on the payroll of the Australian government is in the cryptic but deliberate language used by Foreign Minister Stephen Smith. He referred repeatedly to being "very surprised" by the allegations of espionage.
Even the game of espionage is played by a rough set of rules.
Most countries have declared spies and undeclared spies. China would know the identities of some of Australia's intelligence officers stationed there, and not the identities of others.
If Mr Hu were an undeclared government agent, there is no way the Foreign Minister would be commenting on it in public.
An example of how real spy games unfold was in 1993 when a Russian turncoat told the CIA there was a large Russian spy ring operating in Canberra under diplomatic cover. The CIA told ASIO, which told the Keating government, which quietly expelled six Russian agents from Australia. Their expulsion was never publicly announced.

How shallow and illogic is this whole article!

Why must a spy to be working for a government or on a government's payroll? Why can't a spy work for some companies and organisations? Why can't espionage be for commercial reasons?

All the arguments in the article are as the article title says - do not ring true. They are baseless, and wrong.

It is interesting to see that this nonsensical and illogical piece can be published in The Australian. The value of the newspaper is thereful also questionable.