For several years, PST has warned about the risk of espionage from Russian boat traffic, but in an interview with news they now describe for the first time that Chinese boats are also used for intelligence purposes in Norwegian waters. – China can also use civilian vessels for intelligence purposes, so that is part of the threat picture, says counterintelligence chief Inger Haugland. – How does it take place? – It will be possible to proceed in the same way as with Russian information gathering. Either that they actively search for information, or that they passively report further information that they come across in their normal work. Inger Haugland, head of counterintelligence in PST. Photo: Erlend Koppergård / news PST does not want to go into detail about how this takes place. In previous investigations of Russian intelligence, however, news has uncovered examples of how civilian vessels can be used for a number of different tasks. Russian vessels have, for example, had the opportunity to survey Norwegian fjords, seek out NATO submarines and in at least one case must have had an intelligence agent on board. More Chinese activity Naval captain Tor Ivar Strømmen at the Naval Academy elaborates that the capacity to carry out surveillance without being revealed is increasing. – PST states to news that Chinese vessels can be used in the same way as Russian ones, for example for information gathering. What type of activity is it? – We have seen a number of cases where the Russians run electronic collections. I haven’t seen evidence of the Chinese doing the same, but it’s entirely technically possible. There is not a lot of electronics that needs to be installed, which can be used passively, even without the crew getting involved. Naval captain Tor Ivar Strømmen at the Naval Academy. Photo: Oskar Rennedal / news Strømmen says that the warning from PST comes as part of a worldwide development for Chinese activity. – The Chinese are conducting an extensive survey of trading systems throughout the world. By also surveying in Norway and other states, they get a unique supply of information that enables them to use trade as a means of warfare, without using military force. news has gone through 155 Chinese vessels that have passed through Norwegian waters for 2023 and mapped the voyages as they are reported in open systems. Most of the Chinese traffic goes in the Norwegian Sea, on its way from Europe to Russia, or in the North Sea. This is how civilian vessels can be used for intelligence at sea Mapping bottom conditions Taking pictures and describing NATO vessels Observing how NATO countries train together Recording radio signals Documenting port facilities A review shows that Chinese and Hong Kong-flagged ships made various calls in Norway last year . 80 percent of the traffic is cargo ships, the rest is mostly tankers. The gas plant at Kårstø, the oil refinery at Mongstad and industrial ports in Nordland and outside Porsgrunn have all had calls from Chinese vessels. The gas plant at Kårstø, the oil refinery at Mongstad and industrial ports in Nordland and outside Porsgrunn have all had calls from Chinese vessels. Graphics: Håvard Gulldahl / news This is how we checked the voyages news has been working with ship traffic from open data sources for a long time. For this survey, we have extracted an overview of all vessels with flags from China and Hong Kong that were registered with an AIS position in 2023. We have then obtained all the voyages of these vessels for the entire year. – Has sharpened his gaze Hans Jørgen Gåsemyr is a researcher at the Norwegian Foreign Policy Institute (NUPI). He says that it is not necessarily the case that Chinese vessels have changed their behavior recently. But he believes that PST has increased the attention directed at Chinese activities. Gåsemyr points out that China is a global power with activity worldwide. – China is the world’s largest maritime nation. So that there will also be activity related to some ships that PST or others express skepticism about or see as problematic, I think that is also about the fact that you have built up the apparatus and sharpened your gaze towards it and caught situations that could be problematic, says Gåsemyr. Looking at Chinese activity differently Naval captain Tor Ivar Strømmen says that unlike Norwegian and Western vessels, civilian Chinese vessels can be used for intelligence purposes in peacetime. – Chinese vessels, as well as Chinese-owned vessels, are subject by law to a duty to hand over information to the Chinese authorities, if they request it. He says that some western countries also have it, but there it is subject to “significant parliamentary control”, so that elected politicians can regulate this. This is one of the reasons why he views Chinese activity differently from Western activity. – Chinese authorities can use civilian vessels far more actively, and whenever they wish, without having to go through a democratic check on whether it is permitted or desirable, says Strømmen. news has not been able to get a response from the Chinese embassy in Norway. Have you seen the Brennpunkt documentary series Shadow War? Here, a group of Nordic investigative journalists examines how Russia conducts intelligence in the Nordic region. This leads them to several covert operations. See the series here.
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Now PST warns that Chinese vessels are also being used as spy ships – news Troms and Finnmark
