China’s Ministry of Public Security posted on social media on June 13 about the incident, praising the man surnamed Zhang for calling a hotline to report the four military documents and urging the public to be vigilant about national security issues. The post did not specify the classified documents.

According to the post, Mr. Zhang is a former employee of a state-owned enterprise and has a hobby of collecting military newspapers and magazines. While passing by a scrap shop, Mr. Zhang discovered a bag full of military-related books and bought four volumes for about 6 yuan (21,000 VND).

Upon returning home, Mr. Zhang studied the books and realized they were marked as classified documents, so he reported them to the public security hotline. Immediately after the tip-off, agents from the Chinese Ministry of State Security quickly arrived at Mr. Zhang's home and seized the documents.

Chinese officials said the recovered books were part of eight volumes of 200 secret documents that had been marked for destruction. Officials also said two Chinese military personnel assigned to shred the documents secretly sold them to a scrapyard for less than 100,000 dong (US$4.50) for 30 kilograms (66 pounds) of books. The incident did not result in a significant intelligence leak, but the two officers will still be prosecuted under Chinese law.

The article was republished by Chinese media to raise public awareness of the importance of national security at a time of rising tensions over the possibility of theft or transfer of classified information.

China’s Ministry of State Security regularly calls on the public to help report foreign espionage. In April 2023, Beijing made sweeping changes to its anti-espionage law, a move that broadened the definition of espionage and banned the transfer of national security information. In addition, several Chinese consulting firms and foreign companies operating in China have been investigated for possessing or sharing state secrets.