China's top spy agency says foiled hundreds of weather stations relaying data to foreign governments

China has reportedly cleaned up hundreds of "illegal foreign-related" weather stations that were allegedly spying on the country.

This is the latest broad counter-espionage campaign undertaken by Chinese leader Xi Jinping's government amid intensifying geopolitical tensions with the United States.

A national risk

China's top spy agency, the Ministry of State Security, on Tuesday (Oct 31) said it had discovered 'illegal meteorological stations' with foreign links, reported CNN.

It said that these weather stations were sending real-time updates outside China to foreign governments.

This, as per South China Morning Post (SCMP), was labelled an infringement upon its data rules and poses national security risks by China.

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However, the nation failed to specify which foreign governments were allegedly at the receiving end of this data.

These facilities were found in 20 provinces across China. To detect them, China investigated over 3,000 overseas-related meteorological stations. 

On WeChat, China's alternative to WhatsApp, the spy agency, said, "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."

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"The illegal collection and cross-border transmission of meteorological data pose a threat to our country's sovereignty, security and development interests," it added.

As per the state security ministry, some of these spy weather stations were located near China's military and defence units, while others were near its main grain producer and were monitoring, analysing the nation's crop growth and production.

Do unto others...

Just eight months back, the US Air Force announced that it had shot down a suspected spy balloon that was flying across North American airspace.

At the time, China said it was a civilian vessel being used for meteorological research.

The US at the time said that the spying attempt violated its sovereignty, and China labelled the western nation's response an overreaction.

This episode sent relations between the two nations plummeting to a new low and eventually halted top-level engagements for months.

Paranoid or vigilant?

This comes as, amid geopolitical tensions with the US, China grows wary of potential data leaks. 

Recent months have seen China take stringent steps towards "proactively" defending itself against spies. 2023 also saw China introduce a new anti-espionage law legal basis over a wider range of data and digital activities.

(With inputs from agencies)