Reward: China offers cash for civilians spotting foreign spy drones lurking in local waters
- Authorities award prize money to a Chinese farmer who found an underwater drone on a village beach
China is using incentives to encourage civilians to look for and report spy drones in local waters, citing “increasingly rampant espionage”.
As part of that push, national security authorities have honoured and awarded prize money to a farmer from Wenzhou, in the southeastern coastal province of Zhejiang, who discovered a foreign underwater drone on a beach near his village, Chinese media reported.
The “suspicious device” found by a farmer surnamed Yang in September, was later identified as an underwater unstaffed vehicle made by a Canadian developer, Wenzhou Daily reported on Tuesday.
The drone’s actual type and the name of its country of origin were not disclosed. But the report said the drone was loaded with high-definition camera equipment and was capable of searching for and identifying targets at a depth of up to 600 metres (1,968ft).
“This kind of device can collect important environment data [around] our waters, as well as detect the activities of our navy and acquire information from a near distance,” the report said.