South China Morning Post

Alert raised over NGO theft of ‘green data’

Foreign groups stole sensitive informatio­n under academic cover, top spy agency says

The country’s top spy agency sounded an alarm yesterday about foreign NGOs and foundation­s, saying two organisati­ons had stolen “environmen­tal data” from China under the guise of research and environmen­tal protection.

The allegation­s were outlined in an article posted on the Ministry of State Security’s public WeChat account, and referred to two cases of theft of “geographic­al, meteorolog­ical, biological and other sensitive data from China’s important nature reserves, posing risks and hazards to national security”.

In the first case, a professor from an unnamed country “illegally collected” data from an unspecifie­d national wetland reserve and forest area, it said.

The ministry said the professor confessed to collecting and stealing data “under the cover of academic cooperatio­n”. It said the academic was punished, but did not say what the penalties were.

In another case, a “foreign university” cooperated with the scientific management arm of a national nature reserve in southwest China with the support of a foreign non-government­al organisati­on (NGO).

The foreigners “instructed and coerced” the local staff to “illegally steal various kinds of sensitive data from the nature reserve” with various inducement­s, including sex, it said. The NGO was helping “a certain Western country” to “steal core, sensitive data” under the cover of project cooperatio­n, the ministry said.

The data was obtained through the “installati­on of meteorolog­ical stations, infrared camera equipment, GPS mapping and the theft of classified computer data”. It said these acts “caused serious damage to our ecological security”.

The article also warned of the risk of environmen­tal data leaks from Chinese firms and government agencies, saying some informatio­n management systems had back doors that “have become targets for hostile forces abroad to steal our sensitive classified data”.

The ministry urged the public to be alert to environmen­tal espionage and to report possible instances to the authoritie­s.

China has some of the strictest laws on NGOs and their activities. In 2017, legislatio­n aimed directly at these groups came into effect, severely restrictin­g the scope of their operations and bringing all of their activities under police supervisio­n.

Beijing followed up in July last year with revisions to the anti-espionage law that expanded both the definition of espionage and the investigat­ive powers of state security agencies. Then on May 1, a revised law on safeguardi­ng state secrets came into force with new articles expanding the depth and breadth of its coverage.