Someone asked me: when I see videos of drones spraying pesticides over some farmland or bee-producing areas in China, where strangers are said to be doing it in an organized way—claiming that it’s the work of foreign spies or agents—what is the truth? In China, including the Ministry of Agriculture and other departments, each year there is a certain government budget allocated for plant protection, totaling tens of billions to over a hundred billion. Moreover, these kinds of projects are difficult for ordinary private enterprises to win; they are handled through top-down relationship-based allocation (nominally referred to as bidding). But this also requires certain qualifications and technical capabilities( data analysis and governance effectiveness), as well as relevant performance. The key point is: acceptance is extremely strict. If you miss the pest outbreak window in each region—even by a day—you can fail the acceptance, leading to deductions and rework. However, since the farmland covers a large area, in theory it should be the farmers’ own business. But the pest-acceptance standards are tied to these companies’ profits, and these companies’ profits are linked to the acceptance as well as to various local leaders. That’s how a situation has formed in which local authorities covertly enable the “drones spraying pesticides everywhere” scene.