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A Student Said He Was a Hobby Plane Spotter. He Was Allegedly Taking Photos for the Chinese Government (www.404media.co)
submitted 2 days ago by [B] to c/pulse_of_truth@infosec.pub
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Weiheng Zeng originally said he took photos of planes for an aviation fan website. Later he admitted a suspected Chinese government official had given him specific locations in the U.S. to go photograph.

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[–] 4 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Did he actually do anything illegal? It sounds like he spent some time tooling around in a FedEx parking lot, but not much more than that.

Beyond the question of legality, what threat does this actually pose? The Chinese will now have a picture of the aileron of a max 8? It's not like these planes are some deep secret, they carry the public around.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 days ago (2 children)

    Well if he knew he was doing it for the Chinese government secretly, yeah pretty sure that is illegal.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 days ago (1 child)

    Flights are publicly trackable...what would be the point of this person covertly taking pics of planes to give to China?

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  • [–] 1 point 2 days ago

    It's about logistics. Staying updated without attracting attention, supposedly, just in case.

    Staying aware of the enemy logistics offers the chance to cripple it early in case of a war. There might not be an active plan for it, but it will be an option if needed.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 days ago

    Being an undeclared foreign agent is illegal, regardless of what you're doing. I imagine the Chinese government wouldn't have asked him to take those pictures if they didn't have some value.

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