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China's ministry of state security has claimed that foreign spy agencies are using animals fitted with sensors to collect sensitive marine data.
On Friday, June 12, the ministry shared a post on WeChat titled "Under the deep blue, undercurrents are surging", warning against an "invisible secret war" that was quietly playing out in the seas around China.
Calling out the "secret threat" to national security, the ministry said that among the espionage techniques were large marine animals, including "spy turtle" and "spy fish", that had been found "attached to sensors" as they swarm in Chinese waters.
The animals were "collecting sensitive marine environment data such as water temperature, salinity and ocean currents in real time, and transmitting them overseas via satellite", said the ministry without going into details about the specifics of the animals.
China's state security ministry also said it had found buoys "deployed by an overseas marine research institute" that were "equipped with a meteorological sensor package" that allowed them to track the acoustic signatures of Chinese submarines in real time.
The country has a history of making claims of espionage efforts taking place in nearby waters, including the South China Sea, the East China Sea and the Taiwan Strait.
According to local reports, the Chinese government offers fishers financial rewards ranging from 50,000 to 500,000 yuan for finding spying devices in its waters.
