China deports ‘black hand’ foreigner over theft of thousands of wild plants
- Ministry of State Security says the plants were taken illegally over nine years, infringing ‘ecological security’
- The unnamed offender travelled to ‘dozens of reserves and scenic areas’ in Sichuan and Yunnan provinces from 2011
China has deported a foreigner for gathering protected plants, warning that external forces had infringed the country’s ecological security.
“The foreigner was instructed by an overseas organisation to illegally dig up and collect specimens and seed samples of thousands of wild plant species, and transported them abroad through illegal channels nearly 2,000 times,” the ministry said.
“The state security agency has expelled him/her in accordance with the law, successfully cutting off the ‘black hand’ of foreign forces that infringed on China’s ecological security.”
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The ministry did not say the name or nationality of the defendant or identify the plants taken.
But it said the offender travelled to “dozens of reserves and scenic areas” in Sichuan and Yunnan provinces from 2011 in an operation that lasted nine years.