Check out the Department of State's travel advisory for China. The warning has been there for years:

Security personnel may at times place foreign visitors under surveillance. Hotel rooms, telephones, and fax machines may be monitored, and personal possessions in hotel rooms, including computers, may be searched without the consent or knowledge of the traveler...Foreign government officials, journalists, and business people with access to advanced proprietary technology are particularly likely to be under surveillance.

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_p.../cis_1089.html

I believe the only two countries with this warning are China and Russia. There's a big difference between economic espionage and criminal surveillance.