In the age of open-source intelligence, one main way for Western experts to keep tabs on China\u2019s military is by analyzing photos of new People\u2019s Liberation Army equipment posted online by amateur enthusiasts. <\/p>\n
Posting photos of military ships or aircraft captured from outside PLA installations or from commercial flights near sensitive areas\u00a0has become a common sight\u00a0in recent years as China rapidly modernized its forces. And \u201cmilitary fans\u201d have spread the word to the larger population on social media sites like Weibo, with hundreds of millions of active users. <\/p>\n
But not anymore. <\/p>\n
In a WeChat post Saturday titled: \u201cThis is a cool hobby, but you must be very careful,\u201d the Ministry of State Security said: \u201cSome individual military enthusiasts severely endanger national military security by illegally obtaining information regarding national defense and disseminating them on the internet.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cWith a focus on military airports, ports, national defense and military industrial units, they drove to or took ferries or planes that pass by designated routes, and clandestinely photographed with telephoto lenses or drones,\u201d said the post\u00a0from the highly secretive civilian spy agency. <\/p>\n
Repeat violators could be imprisoned for up to seven years, although \u201cfirst-time or occasional offenders\u201d may only receive a warning, according to the agency, which oversees intelligence and counterintelligence both within China and overseas. <\/p>\n
The warning\u00a0comes as Chinese leaders have becoming increasingly focused on ensuring national security across a range of sectors, especially as tensions rise with the United States. <\/p>\n
For example, the agency only earlier this year launched its social media account \u2013 dedicated to warning citizens about the risks of exposing China\u2019s secrets to the outside world and calling on them to join its fight against espionage. <\/p>\n
According to the spy agency\u2019s post Saturday, images posted online can show the progress of construction on warships or aircraft while also disclosing operational and technical details of Chinese military hardware. The post specifically mentioned aircraft carriers as one area where security could be compromised. <\/p>\n
China\u2019s newest aircraft carrier, the Fujian,\u00a0has been a frequent target of amateur spotters as it is fitted out at a Shanghai shipyard. The Jiangnan shipyard where the work is being done is close to flight paths of Pudong Shanghai International Airport. <\/p>\n
In November, Paris-based defense news site Naval News reported that the Fujian had begun testing its advanced electromagnetic catapult system, based on videos posted on Weibo apparently taken from a passenger plane out of Pudong. <\/p>\n
\u201cRelated imagery taken from passenger planes has become a common source to follow the progress of several major (PLA Navy) programs,\u201d Naval News reported. <\/p>\n
The Fujian is certainly a marquee program for the PLA Navy. The 80,000-ton warship, the largest military vessel ever made in China, is considered a rival to the newest US Navy carriers in the Gerald R Ford-class, one of the few other carriers to use electromagnetic catapults to launch aircraft. <\/p>\n
The photos of the suspected catapult test gave Western analysts an idea of how the PLA Navy is progressing in getting the carrier ready for commissioning and active service. <\/p>\n
And that imagery isn\u2019t the first of the Fujian to find its way online. <\/p>\n
In April 2023, state broadcaster CCTV disclosed in a news report that in November 2021, Mr. Luo, a \u201cfairly renowned\u201d military enthusiast, was sentenced to one year in prison following his arrest by the Shanghai national security bureau for photographing the Fujian carrier. <\/p>\n
Luo had used\u00a0a drone capable of filming long-range high-resolution photos, the report said. <\/p>\n
It\u2019s not just China that\u2019s wary of what amateur military spotters might do that could reveal sensitive information. <\/p>\n
US law says the President can designate certain military installations and equipment as off-limits to image makers. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt shall be unlawful to make any photograph, sketch, picture, drawing, map, or graphical representation of such vital military and naval installations or equipment,\u201d unless proper permission is obtained beforehand, the US Code states. Violators could face up to a year in prison. <\/p>\n
Of course, militaries can sometimes use open-source intelligence to their advantage, said Carl Schuster, a former director of operations at the US Pacific Command\u2019s Joint Intelligence Center. <\/p>\n\n
In the age of open-source intelligence, one main way for Western experts to keep tabs on China\u2019s military is by analyzing photos of new People\u2019s Liberation Army equipment posted online by amateur enthusiasts. Posting photos of military ships or aircraft captured from outside PLA installations or from commercial flights near sensitive areas\u00a0has become a common <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":13323,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13322","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13322\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}