Mysterious buoys: China’s top spy agency crowdsources help to track foreign devices at sea

China’s top spy agency has called on the public to identify and report oceanic buoys that may be in use by a foreign military and could be used against submarines.

Oceanic buoys are versatile marine observation devices mainly used to monitor oceanographic conditions, water quality and weather data. They play a critical role in maritime scientific research, offshore oil and gas exploration, as well as national defence operations.

But, without naming any country, the Ministry of State Security said foreign powers were repurposing the buoys into covert instruments for gathering sensitive maritime data.

“Some hostile foreign forces are using them as ‘silent sentinels’ and ‘spies’ in the deep ocean, trying to steal sensitive marine data from us,” the ministry wrote in an article on its official WeChat account on Saturday.

As the oceans become battlegrounds for information supremacy, the ministry said that public vigilance was pivotal for maintaining China’s national security integrity, and asked the public to report suspicious buoys.

The initiative comes in the wake of China’s heightened concerns about buoys used for spying and collecting data by foreign adversaries in the South China Sea.

Last year, China deployed light buoys near contested reefs in the South China Sea, following similar actions by the Philippines. It is part of ongoing efforts by various nations in the region, including Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei, to assert administrative control over the disputed waters and bolster their territorial claims.