China’s State Security Ministry disclosed that classified military documents were purchased for 85 cents by a retiree named “Grandpa Zhang.” The sale involved eight volumes, costing less than $4 total.

The State Security Ministry of China announced on Thursday that, for the low cost of 85 cents, a retiree had managed to obtain four volumes of classified military documents from a recycling store.

The ministry thanked the retiree for reporting the documents to authorities and detailed the situation in a social media post urging the public to exercise caution when it comes to concerns about national security.

They called him “Grandpa Zhang.” People who don’t have a prominent profile are usually not given their full names by Chinese authorities and media.

The post claims that Zhang is a former worker for a state-owned company who enjoys collecting military periodicals and newspapers.

According to officials, he was strolling around his neighborhood when he noticed a scrap business selling two bags full of literature that appeared to be connected to the military.

Overjoyed by his discovery, he purchased one bag containing four volumes for roughly 6 Chinese yuan, or $0.85, and took them home, as per the instructions.

Authorities said that after Zhang examined the books at home and noticed they were labeled as “secret” and “confidential,” he reported them to a hotline for public safety.

Agents stormed Zhang’s house, according to the State Security Ministry, and took the documents. Zhang’s residence was not disclosed by the ministry.

The state security ministry found that Zhang’s purchase had been a part of eight volumes of 200 classified documents that were slated for disposal after looking into the scrap yard, according to the post.

It said that instead of shredding the records, two military personnel in a sensitive unit—only known as Guo and Li—sold them to a recycling facility for roughly $0.06 per pound. According to officials, the pair only made a profit of less than $4 on the entire sale because the entire tranche of documents weighed roughly 60 pounds.

The ministry noted that the episode did not result in a substantial information breach, but it did blame the two for having a “weak sense of confidentiality” and “greed for convenience’s sake”.

It stated that Guo and Li, along with anyone else accountable, were dealt with by Chinese law and that the ministry was in charge of reorganizing protocols to prevent future blunders.

The State Security Ministry is pushing for Chinese citizens to use a hotline to report breaches in national security, and this Thursday’s post was a part of that effort.

It’s difficult to say how a leak of such secrets may have damaged the Chinese military because it’s unclear what information the documents described by the ministry contained.

In recent months, the State Security Ministry of China has consistently asked the public for help in reporting acts of foreign espionage. Beijing greatly amended its anti-espionage statute in April 2023. These modifications prohibited the sharing of information related to national security and expanded the scope of spying.

Amidst the increased US-China tensions, especially due to accusations of espionage between the two rivals, China is also engaging in such posturing. In 2021, the CIA declared that it had opened a mission center dedicated to China, and in the meantime, Beijing has been under fire for allegedly detaining businessmen from the US and its allies on charges of spying.

CIA Director William Burns shocked Beijing in July 2023 when he revealed at a security summit in Colorado that his organization has been enlisting businessmen and Chinese officials for its spy networks.

“We’ve made progress and we’re working very hard over recent years to ensure that we have a strong human intelligence capability to complement what we can acquire through other methods,” he told The Wall Street Journal.

China responded by calling Burns a liar and pledging to take “all necessary” steps to stop American espionage.

Recently, GreatGameIndia reported that former CIA officer and FBI linguist Alexander Yuk Ching Ma pleaded guilty in a Honolulu federal court on Friday to spying for China for over a decade, in exchange for $50,000.