Conspiracies existed then. They were well documented.
Early to mid 20th Century large scale Soviet penetration of the US, both before and during WWII, becoming easily deniable after McCarthy, who was an idiot but who was also onto something, was discredited, analogously to repeated continental Catholic penetrations and plots in the Elizabethan British Isles.
Even today, well established well documented plots, like the Babington Plot, are denied by Catholic Whig history apologists, apparently. The Queen's Agent, p 131: Francis Edwards, Plots and Plotters in the Reign of Elizabeth I (Dublin, 2002), p. 125.
David Kaiser, a well known historian, apparently believes, based on McCarthy being discredited, that extensive Soviet penetration of the US prior to and during WWII is largely a false conservative American hoax,
This is the kind of theme that China is apparently planning to use against American claims about China's activities. This is not my own idea:
It includes a separate claim of white American racism against Chinese. Since we are known original sin racists, it is easy to make this additional argument for the Chinese.
See recent Hudson Institute Report noted in a prior post.
David Kaiser's posts on this topic, below, can be seen as illustrative of the kinds of arguments against such a Chinese penetration as the Report outlines, that will likely be made by the Chinese themselves, by analogy with, for example, Kaiser's criticisms of McCarthyism, as ultimately groundless conspiracy mongering.
However, with daily disclosures of large scale state hackings by both Russia and China, it becomes increasingly more difficult to deny focussed conspiratorial espionage programs on a very wide scale indeed.
Recent obvious Russian hackings of American campaigns and many other entities, in many countries, have placed previous mid 20th Century Soviet espionage and CPUSA collaborations denials in an increasingly untenable position, especially when one considers great Russian whistleblower joint author publications, and VENONA, since 1990
Re education and meritocracy versus racial or class distinctions in education, the Chinese are sure to use (already have) their discussions with Randall Collins in recent years, re The Credential Society and other things, to their advantage not yours. They may also turn DK's remarks about higher education to their propaganda purposes, similarly to how Steve Bannon flipped DK's Straus and Howe generational crisis schema to his agenda with ease:
