China’s MSS discloses data collection by spies, warning of threat to ecological security

China’s Ministry of State Security (MSS) disclosed several ecological security cases on Monday, warning that some overseas non-governmental organizations (NGOs) or foundations have illegally collected and stolen sensitive geographic, meteorological, and biological data under the cover of research projects, compromising national security.

Under the cover of international academic exchange and cooperation, some foreign entities have illegally collected sensitive ecological data in China over recent years. For example, an individual acting as a professor from a foreign country claimed to be carrying out ecological environment cooperation with local groups in China and in return providing a generous financial reward.

Accompanied by local residents, the individual deployed multiple instruments and items of equipment in nationallevel wetland protection areas, forest farms, and other locations. They established multiple small-scale observation and test sites, illegally collecting sensitive geographic, metrological and biological data from key natural conservation areas, according to the ministry.

Following the investigation, the “professor” admitted to using academic cooperation as a cover to collect and steal non-traditional security data. National security authorities became aware of the matter and pursued the individual and personnel involved.

In another case, a foreign university, supported by an overseas NGO, engaged in a so-called “cooperation project” with a national-level nature reserve scientific research and management unit in the southwestern region in China. The foreign university used unethical tactics including offering benefits and using pornography to entice and coerce relevant personnel to steal sensitive data from the national reserve.

National security authorities discovered that the NGO acted as a cover for a Western country to illegally gather sensitive data from a natural reserve. They illegally installed weather stations, and extracted confidential computer data in the core area of the reserve, transferring overseas a large amount of sensitive data, posing a serious threat to China’s ecological security, the ministry said.