A Chinese pensioner found “military secrets” among discarded books (2 photos)

The military was supposed to destroy confidential documents, but sold them for waste paper for $12. The files were discovered by a retired enthusiast who is interested in military topics.





Chinese retiree “Uncle Zhang,” who collects military-themed newspapers and magazines, accidentally purchased four volumes of confidential military documents for 85 cents, China’s Ministry of State Security reported on the Weixin social network.

The purchase happened like this: a pensioner was walking near his house and noticed two snakeskin bags filled with books at the door of a waste paper collection point. The man noticed that the books were completely new and related to military topics, after which he bought four of them for six yuan.

Returning home, the man began reading, but the more he read, the more his anxiety grew, the ministry notes. The pensioner assumed that he had bought “military secrets” and contacted the local department of the Ministry of State Security.



During the investigation, it turned out that the documents were sent to the waste paper collection point by members of the secret unit Guo and Li. They were tasked with destroying more than 200 secret documents, but instead sold them for about 0.8 yuan per 1 kg. The total weight of the shipment exceeded 30 kg, and the agents earned more than 20 yuan ($12).

After being held accountable, the ministry began reviewing procedures to prevent a recurrence of the situation.