China warns 'military fans' they could face prison for posting photos online
CTV
In the age of open-source intelligence, one main way for Western experts to keep tabs on China’s military is by analyzing photos of new People’s Liberation Army equipment posted online by amateur enthusiasts.
In the age of open-source intelligence, one main way for Western experts to keep tabs on China’s military is by analyzing photos of new People’s 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 has become a common sight in recent years as China rapidly modernized its forces. And “military fans” have spread the word to the larger population on social media sites like Weibo, with hundreds of millions of active users.
But not anymore.
In a WeChat post Saturday titled: "This is a cool hobby, but you must be very careful," the Ministry of State Security said: "Some individual military enthusiasts severely endanger national military security by illegally obtaining information regarding national defence and disseminating them on the internet."
"With a focus on military airports, ports, national defence 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," said the post from the highly secretive civilian spy agency.
Repeat violators could be imprisoned for up to seven years, although “first-time or occasional offenders” may only receive a warning, according to the agency, which oversees intelligence and counterintelligence both within China and overseas.
The warning comes as Chinese leaders have becoming increasingly focused on ensuring national security across a range of sectors, especially as tensions rise with the United States.
Shaquille O’Neal is offering to pay for the funeral of a 12-year-old Georgia girl who died a few days after she collapsed following a fight after school.
Both parties on Capitol Hill remain unmoved in their fight over U.S. President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda, threatening to drag out the U.S. Department of Homeland Security shutdown for days – if not weeks – more.
Closing arguments are set to kick off Tuesday in a trial pitting Elon Musk against Twitter shareholders who say the world’s richest man engaged in a pattern of deceptive behavior that misled investors as he attempted to back out of his US$44-billion deal to buy the social media platform in 2022.
A Utah woman who wrote a children’s book about coping with grief after her husband’s death was convicted of aggravated murder in his death by poisoning him with fentanyl.
U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly taken aim at Democratic rival and possible 2028 presidential candidate Gavin Newsom. But lately, he’s become fixated on saying the California governor cannot be president due to his “learning disability.”
More than 10,000 U.S. flights were delayed or cancelled Monday amid a series of storms affecting several major airports along the East Coast and some other locales.
The man who attacked a Michigan synagogue was the brother of a Hezbollah commander killed earlier this month in an Israeli airstrike, Israel’s military claimed Sunday.
Taiwan saw a surge of Chinese military planes near the island, its defence ministry said Sunday, after a sharp drop in flights over the past two weeks had sparked discussions among observers.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, accompanied by his teenage daughter, observed a live-fire test of multiple rocket launch systems, state media reported Sunday, a likely response to ongoing U.S.-South Korean military training that North Korea views as an invasion rehearsal.
North Korea on Saturday fired about 10 ballistic missiles toward the eastern sea, South Korea’s military said, staging its own show of force as the rival South conducts a joint military exercise with the United States.
A Georgia prosecutor has dropped the charges against a teenager who police say was driving the truck that struck and killed a beloved high school teacher when a prank turned deadly, the teen’s lawyer said. The victim’s family had asked authorities to drop the charges.
Investigators worked Friday to determine the exact reason a man with a rifle crashed into a large Michigan synagogue in what federal officials are saying was an attack carried out by a 41-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen born in Lebanon.
Warsaw’s city council on Thursday voted almost unanimously to ban night-time alcohol sales in the capital of Poland, which ranks among the EU countries with the highest drinking-related mortality rates.