An investigation by the House Homeland Security Committee found that cranes made by China and installed at U.S. ports included communications equipment put in place without explanation.
The investigation, which was also conducted by the House Select Committee on China, focused on 200 Chinese-made cranes at U.S. ports and facilities that included undocumented cellular modems that can be used for remote communication.
“Our Committees’ investigation found vulnerabilities in cranes at U.S. ports that could allow the [Chinese Communist Party] to not only undercut trade competitors through espionage, but disrupt supply chains and the movement of cargo, devastating our nation’s economy,” House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-TN) said in a statement to CNN. “Without a swift sea-change, we will continue to gift the CCP with an easy means of infiltrating our critical infrastructure on their quest for global dominance.”
Nearly 80% of cranes used at U.S. ports are Chinese-made, according to the Coast Guard. Cellular modems are not unusual for cranes, and these modems were not requested or documented. Officials at one port admitted that they knew of the modems but did not know why they were on the cranes, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The discovery was made amid a period of heightened national security tensions between the United States and China. Experts have warned that the cranes can be accessed and controlled remotely, which means a hacker could theoretically access intelligence from the ports or cause disruptions to the equipment.
China has dismissed the national security concerns as “paranoia,” according to Liu Pengyu, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington.
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“We firmly oppose the U.S. overstretching the concept of national security and abusing national power to obstruct normal economic and trade cooperation between China and the U.S.,” Pengyu told CNN.
The finding also comes a month after Biden administration officials said they would invest over $20 billion over the next five years to replace the Chinese cranes with ones made by the U.S.
