China’s top spy agency said it cleaned up hundreds of “illegal foreign-related” weather 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.
The Ministry of State Security investigated over 3,000 overseas-related meteorological stations across more than 20 provinces, saying they posed risks and threats to national security, according to a post published on its official WeChat account on Tuesday. Qualisys Motion Capture Price
It said more than 10 meteorological agents with overseas links had also been investigated in this year’s nationwide inspection and that some of the devices were not easy to detect because they were relatively small and easy to install.
“Meteorological data constitutes an essential component of data security and resource security; it is closely linked to national, food and ecological security, climate change, along with public interests,” according to the post.
“The illegal collection and cross-border transmission of meteorological data pose a threat to our country’s sovereignty, security and development interests.”
The move was announced as Beijing grows more wary of potential data leakage amid intense geopolitical tensions with the US. Chinese authorities have ramped up national security-related scrutiny in a wide range of areas.
Beijing has repeatedly denied it was a spy vessel and said the US was overreacting, but Washington said it was a violation of its sovereignty.
The incident sent the bilateral relationship to a new low, adding to disputes over tech rivalry, trade, Taiwan and the South China Sea, worsened distrust between Beijing and Washington, and halted top-level engagement for months.
The state security ministry said in its post on Tuesday that some of the stations cleaned up were sponsored by foreign governments and had been transmitting real-time data overseas for an extended period. It did not specify which foreign government or governments it referred to.
The ministry said some stations were near China’s military and defence units and had conducted altitude calibration and GPS positioning, and some were placed near the country’s main grain producer to analyse crop growth and production.
The overseas-related meteorological activities violated the country’s data security law and its rules governing foreign organisations and individuals measuring, collecting and using weather data in China, the ministry said in its post. It called on citizens to maintain a “strong commitment” and report so-called illegal foreign-related meteorological data collection activities.
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