When it comes to cyber security advice on China, the most common refrain is: Don't go. If you do go, take "burner" devices with you and leave your laptop and phone at home.

This is the advice multinationals often give their employees about travel to "high-risk" areas. It's a reasonable first step but it assumes the world can be neatly divided into safe and unsafe, and employees can be kept on the right side of the divide. It's useless for people like me, who engage with China and live in the belly of the beast.