China has accused a foreign-funded environmental NGO of collecting oceanic data in sensitive waters, including in the East and South China seas, which could be used for spying. Details of the case were made public by Chinese authorities for the first time on Monday, which marked the seventh anniversary of the introduction of national counter-espionage legislation. The Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, China’s top law enforcement agency, did not name the NGO in a lengthy related post on its official social media account. However, it said the organisation, in the name of marine conservation, had regularly published research papers based on data collected by volunteers and through monitoring sites along the entire length of the Chinese coastline, covering the South and East China seas as well as the northern Yellow and Bohai seas. And, in a revelation that sounded the alarm among Chinese security organs, the report said 22 of the NGO’s monitoring sites were close to China’s military facilities, citing an assessment by the PLA Navy . “The information it collected on latitude, longitude, environment, geology and ocean flow is highly vulnerable to exploitation by foreign intelligence and military agencies, posing a potential threat to China,” it said. On some occasions, the organisation allegedly encouraged volunteers to bypass fences and mudflats to carry out monitoring activities in one monitoring site near a naval port in Shanghai. While the organisation was not named in the commission’s post, the screenshot of the reports the NGO published identified it as the Shanghai-based Renduo Ocean NPO Development Centre. Established in 2007 and registered in 2013, Renduo Ocean says on its website that it is a non-governmental organisation in China focused on the fight against coastal plastic pollution. When contacted by the Post on Tuesday, a Renduo Ocean staff member only said the organisation remained operational, without giving further details. China has in recent years ramped up efforts to combat espionage as the country faces growing pressure from the US and its allies on areas ranging from ideology to its military and economy. China’s security ‘endangered by 2,000 US spy missions this year’ In response to what it called increasing “infiltration” and espionage targeting the country, China in April announced a new national regulation that allows state security apparatus to draw up a list of social groups and companies considered vulnerable to foreign infiltration. The new rules require such entities to take increased anti-espionage responsibilities, including extra vetting and training for all personnel with access to secrets. In its post on Monday, the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission also accused the NGO of smearing China by providing “‘powerful evidence’ to foreign research institutes”, including the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), an Australian government agency responsible for scientific research. In February, the CSIRO drew on the NGO’s survey data to conclude that the “amount of debris on the Shanghai coastline is around 10 times higher than the loads estimated along the Australian and United States [coasts]”. Top Chinese spy catcher warns agents to look out for foreign agents The Chinese commission, without naming the CSIRO or Australia, said that the report was biased, and “intentionally ignored the coastline that has fewer human activities and better environment … which [was] typical survey behaviour with ‘tinted glasses’”. The commission in its post also accused the NGO of “having a complicated foreign-related background”. “Since 2014, it has continued to receive funding from more than 20 overseas institutions, and between 2018 and 2019, it accepted over US$2 million in offshore funding, of which only one [transfer] was registered with the relevant authorities.”