BEIJING, Apr. 16 -- On July 7, 2020, when Nie, a 30-year-old employee of a hydraulic company, strolled along a wharf in east China’s Zhejiang Province, a certain military base caught his eyes. Out of curiosity, Nie trespassed through the barbed wire fence into the forbidden military zone.
Nie lingered in the forbidden militaryzone for nearly two hours, taking 40 pictures of military installations such as warships, military docks, barracks, training equipment, etc. He was later discovered by the military personnel on duty and handed over to local public security organ. These pictures were identified to have involved two confidential military secrets.
Nie confessed to the crime on the court, saying that he only stored the pictures in his mobile phone and was not instigated by anyone or had any other illegal purposes. He was convicted of illegally obtaining state secrets and sentenced to six months in imprisonment along with one-year probation, with his mobile phone confiscated.
According to Article 15 of the Military Facilities Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) , personnel, vehicles, and ships not affiliated to the management units of forbidden military areas both on land and in water are prohibited from entering; the photography, video and audio recording, surveying, measuring, depiction and transcribing are also prohibited in forbidden military areas; and aircraft are prohibited from flying at low altitudes over forbidden military areas.