China's top spy agency cracks down on 'illegal' weather stations

Beijing: China's top spy agency said it cleaned up hundreds of "illegal meteorological" stations that sent real-time data outside China as it steps up efforts to stop critical data leaving the country amid increasingly tense geopolitical competition, CNN reported on Thursday.

The country's civilian spy agency, the Ministry of State Security, said on Tuesday that the facilities were found across more than 20 provinces, and some of them were "directly funded by foreign governments," the ministry said in a statement on social media.
The spy agency reported that some stations were set up around sensitive sites, such as military bases and defence companies, to locate altitude and GPS data. In addition, they placed stations in major grain-producing regions to analyse crop growth and grain yield, according to the ministry.
The ministry pointed out that some of these devices were small, easy to install, and hard to detect. They were capable of automatically collecting and transmitting data over a network in real-time.

The statement also revealed that some of these stations transmitted real-time information to official meteorological agencies overseas at a high frequency and at multiple points for an extended period. They served the "homeland security" and meteorological monitoring of foreign countries.
The ministry did not disclose the specific foreign countries involved in these activities.
Authorities made this discovery after investigating over 10 overseas meteorological equipment agents and inspecting more than 3,000 foreign-linked meteorological stations nationwide, as reported by CNN.

The spy agency noted that the involved foreign parties did not obtain administrative licences for their activities and had not submitted the data to Chinese meteorological authorities or obtained approval for transmitting the data overseas. These actions were in violation of China's data security law enacted in 2021 and a separate set of regulations governing how foreign organisations can collect, use, and share Chinese weather readings, as reported by CNN on Thursday.
The Ministry of State Security emphasised the critical nature of meteorological data in terms of data security and resource security. It is closely linked to the military, food, ecological security, climate change, and public interests. The illegal collection and cross-border transmission of meteorological data were deemed as endangering China's sovereignty, security, and development interests.

Foreign collection of meteorological data has been a point of contention with Chinese authorities in the past. In 2012, Beijing requested that foreign governments stop releasing data on China's air quality, following the US Embassy's documentation of Beijing's air pollution. The Embassy's hourly air quality data postings on Twitter raised public awareness and led to actions by Chinese officials to address the air quality issue.
The recent crackdown on foreign-linked weather stations follows an incident eight months ago when the United States shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon that had ventured across the continental US and hovered over sensitive military sites. China maintained that it was a "civilian airship used for research, mainly meteorological purposes," that had strayed off course, and it accused the US of overreacting, CNN reported.

In the subsequent months, both China and the United States have accused each other of spying in a series of highly publicised allegations, intensifying their rivalry.
China's Ministry of State Security has taken on a more prominent role in publicising multiple cases of alleged espionage by the US in recent months. This usually secretive agency, responsible for intelligence and counterintelligence, even created a public account on WeChat in August to urge the public to stay vigilant and report suspicious activity.
This propaganda campaign comes after CIA Director William Burns announced that the agency had made progress in rebuilding its spy network in China, following significant setbacks a decade ago, CNN reported.