Chinese maritime cranes pose national security risk at ports, House GOP warns

U.S. reliance on Chinese maritime cranes is presenting a national security risk since the cranes can be accessed remotely with built-in modems, Republicans on the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and the Homeland Security Committee warned in a staff report Friday.

Describing the modems as “hidden” and “unauthorized,” the committee said its discovery was troubling, as the modems were not requested by U.S. ports or mentioned in relevant legal contracts.

“These cellular modems, not requested by U.S. ports or included in contracts, were intended for the collection of usage data on certain equipment. This constitutes a significant backdoor security vulnerability that undermines the integrity of port operations,” the joint staff report says.

The cranes in question are made by the Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industry Co. Ltd. (ZPMC), a state-controlled enterprise in China that does business with ports all over the world.

House Republicans, expressing alarm at the potential vulnerability, also noted ZPMC and similar Chinese companies were not contractually prohibited from installing backdoors into their hardware.

“ZPMC and other [Chinese state-owned enterprises] are not contractually barred from installing backdoors into equipment or modifying technology in ways that could allow unauthorized access or remote control, enabling them to compromise sensitive data or disrupt operations within the U.S. maritime sector at a later time,” the report said.

Chinese data collection of shipping and logistical information is part of the country’s “Going Out” strategy first articulated by Chinese premier Jiang Zemin in the 1990s, lawmakers said. 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.

Lawmakers described the policy as “marking a pivotal shift in international economic dynamics.”

A representative for the American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA) told The Hill on Friday that “there have been no known security breaches of equipment at US ports.”

“Due to our constant work with the U.S. Coast Guard, other federal law enforcement, and private sector experts, there have been no known security breaches involving port equipment to date,”AAPA President and CEO Cary S. Davis said in a Thursday statement responding to the congressional report.

Chinese embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu described the primary assertion of the House report as “entirely paranoia.”

“We firmly oppose some politicians from the U.S. side overstretching the concept of national security and abusing national power to obstruct normal economic and trade cooperation between China and the U.S.,” he wrote in an email to The Hill.

“Playing the ‘China card’ and floating the ‘China threat’ theory is irresponsible and will harm the interests of the U.S. itself,” he added.

While the U.S. and Chinese economies are still deeply intertwined, with China holding heaps of U.S. debt and the U.S. buying loads of Chinese products, economic relations between the countries have exhibited signs of stress in the aftermath of the pandemic, as supply and value chains buckled under shutdowns, eventually contributing to a wave of global inflation.

Recent U.S. policy shifts toward domestic investment and manufacturing, notably in semiconductors, have added a tailwind to this turbulence, though many policy shops in Washington stress the economic symbiosis between the U.S. and China.

This story was updated at 5:31 p.m.