China: Spy turtles steal the nation’s secrets

Foreign spies are fitting turtles and fish with sensors to create underwater maps of China’s coastline, warns Beijing. “Beneath the deep waters, underwater currents surge.”

So reads the headline of a post published on social media by China’s Ministry of State Security, which claims that international spy organisations are using new technology to steal sensitive marine data. The ministry calls it “a serious threat to China’s national security”.

“Relatively large marine animals with sensors attached to them have been discovered in certain waters in China,” the Ministry states in a piece entitled “spy turtles, spy fish”.

It further claims that the creatures “were found swimming in a specific area, collecting sensitive data on water temperature, salinity and ocean currents, before transmitting it abroad via satellite.”

^{Text: TT/Nyhetsbyrå Photo: Cody Jackson/AP/TT}