Despite its long-standing reliance on Chinese marine cranes, the U.S. is placing a national security risk over the cranes' ability to be operated remotely through built-in modems, according to a staff report released Friday by the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. 

"Hidden" and "unauthorized" modems have been found in U.S. ports, and the committee described the discovery as troubling, as U.S. ports have not requested the modems or specifically identified in legal agreements. Several cranes used at US ports may have been fitted with intelligence-gathering equipment installed by a Chinese company that could allow Beijing to spy on Americans and cripple critical infrastructure in the United States, according to a new report released by Congress. 

As a result of the Republican majority on both the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, as well as the House Homeland Security Committee, it was found that Shanghai-based ZPMC engineering company, a state-owned company, had pressured American port authorities to allow remote access to its cranes, “particularly on the West Coast” of the United States. 

Despite this, it is also possible that this access could be extended to other government entities within the People’s Republic of China, posing an additional risk because PRC national security laws mandate cooperation with state intelligence agencies, according to the report, resulting from a year-long investigation. As for the cranes in question, they are products of the Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industry Co., Ltd. (ZPMC), which is a Chinese state company that operates in overseas ports and is regarded as one of the leading crane manufacturers in the world. 

It is important to note that, when raising concerns about ZPMC and similar Chinese companies, the House Republicans also made the point that it was not contractually bound to prevent backdoors from being installed in their products. ZPMC and other Chinese state-owned companies are not contractually barred from installing backdoors into equipment or modifying technology in such a way that could allow unauthorized access or remote control to equipment. 

According to the report, this would enable them to compromise sensitive data or disrupt operations within the U.S. maritime sector in the future," In a statement released on Monday, lawmakers said that Chinese governments are collecting and analyzing shipping and logistics data under their country's "Going Out" strategy, which was first outlined by Chinese Premier Jiang Zemin during the 1990s. 

That strategy encompasses the construction of new ports in the Indian Ocean, as well as major infrastructure investments in Africa, and trade and commercial initiatives across the Asian continent. In their words, Congress described the policy as marking a pivotal shift in international economic dynamics, a noteworthy development. It is reported that the American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA) confirmed to The Hill on Friday that there have been no recorded security breaches of equipment at US ports because of his association. 

There has long been concern among U.S. officials about China-made products being used in critical infrastructure and other sensitive areas. There has only been an increase in tensions between the U.S. and China over Taiwan as it has become clear that the threat of a martial conflict is now very real. In an interview at the Center for Strategic and International Studies earlier this week, Rob Silvers, who oversees the Department of Homeland Security's policy division, explained that the Biden administration has made a recommendation to invest billions of dollars into cranes to counter Beijing's impact. 

Even though the U.S. and Chinese economies remain deeply intertwined, the U.S. still holds a huge amount of Chinese debt and the U.S. still holds a lot of Chinese debt. Even though Chinese products are sold in huge quantities, economic relations between the two countries have been under intense stress since the pandemic, as the supply and value chains were shut down, contributing eventually to a wave of global inflation as a result. In recent years, the U.S. policy on investment and manufacturing has shifted more towards domestic production, including in semiconductors, which has added some tailwind to the current volatility, even though many policy shops in Washington point out that the U.S. and China have a symbiotic relationship economically.