There is growing concern that Chinese container cranes operating in U.S. ports and cargo terminals, many of which are operated by the military, could offer China “invisible”, though in plain sight, spy tool.

Pentagon officials and national security advisers compared these cranes, built by China’s ZPMC, to a Trojan horse.

While these steel structures are well-built, albeit cheap, they include sophisticated sensors that can register and track the origin and destination of containers, raising concerns that China may be collecting information on materials imported or exported from the country to support the military. US missions around the world. .

“Crane is the new Huawei”

In recent years, amid growing concern over China’s increased control of ports around the world through strategic investment, U.S. national security officials have pointed to a range of Chinese-made equipment, from baggage screening systems to electrical transformers, that could potentially facilitate surveillance. or disrupt various U.S. activities.

As Bill Evanina, a former senior U.S. counterintelligence official, points out, cranes can provide remote access to someone looking for a way to disrupt the smooth flow of goods.

“Cranes could be the new Huawei,” he notes, referring to the Chinese telecommunications giant whose equipment was banned in the US after warnings it could be used to spy on Americans.

“It’s the perfect combination of a legitimate business masquerading as a covert intelligence gatherer,” he adds.

In this context, an $850 billion defense policy bill passed in December calls for an unclassified study by the end of 2023 to find out whether foreign-made cranes pose a threat to cybersecurity or national security in American ports.

“Paranoia”

A spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington called the Americans’ concerns a “paranoid” attempt to disrupt trade and economic cooperation with China.

“Playing the ‘China card’ and spreading the theory of the ‘China threat’ is irresponsible and will harm America’s own interests,” he said.

It is noted that ZPMC cranes entered the US market about two decades ago, offering, according to industry representatives, good quality tools, significantly cheaper than their counterparts in the West.

Over the past years, ZPMC has grown into a major player in the global port automation industry by partnering with Microsoft Corp. and other tech giants to connect their equipment and analyze data in real time.

The recent tension created by the giant American spy, a Chinese weather balloon that flew over America among other things, has highlighted the changing nature of espionage and new ways beyond the usual intelligence-gathering tools that countries invent to spy on others.

Source: Wall Street Journal