Most believe America is more unsafe today than ever before. Now there’s proof.
As the White House has had an emergency meeting over this unexpected foreign invasion.
National security isn’t necessarily one of Joe Biden’s strong-suits, to say the least. Enemies are growing more emboldened, illegal immigration is at an all time high, and federal security is worsening by the day. All of this has happened on Joe Biden’s watch.
The issue of national security is one that, according to surveys, the average American voter trusts Donald Trump on way more than they do Joe Biden and his administration. It’s not hard to see why.
We all remember that fiasco in early 2023 when the Biden administration admitted they didn’t even know the Chinese were flying a spy balloon over the United States to gain intel on American military bases and God-knows what else.
Or what about the countless headlines Americans are reading in the news about terrorists making it into the United States and having to be caught by Border Patrol and found to be on known terrorist lists?
Well now there’s yet another national security blunder, only this time it’s not one that can be easily fixed.
A recent investigation conducted by the U.S. Congress has brought to light findings regarding communication equipment present on Chinese-built cargo cranes operating in U.S. seaports, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Rather than opting for domestic production, which may entail higher costs, the United States heavily relies on the relatively inexpensive Chinese-built cargo cranes across its seaports. However, the congressional inquiry revealed that some of these cranes, manufactured by the Chinese conglomerate ZMPC, contain communication devices that were either not requested or do not seem to align with standard operational requirements. This discovery has heightened existing worries about espionage, according to sources cited by the WSJ.
U.S. intelligence has issued warnings regarding the potential exploitation of Chinese-made cranes, equipped with various sensors and communication tools, as part of China’s broader strategy to undermine national security. Despite these concerns, Beijing dismisses U.S. apprehensions as baseless paranoia and accuses the U.S. of abusing its national power to impede normal economic and trade cooperation, as per reports from the WSJ.
Republican Representative Mark Green, chairing the House Homeland Security Committee, expressed grave concerns, stating that China is actively seeking opportunities to gather intelligence and exploit vulnerabilities within America’s critical infrastructure, including the maritime sector. He criticized the U.S. for overlooking this threat for too long.
The investigation unearthed several irregularities, including the presence of numerous cellular modems on crane components at one port and a modem in a server room at another port. While such equipment is not uncommon in ports for remote monitoring and operational tracking, several ports with ZMPC cranes did not request or require such capabilities.
One port, in correspondence with Congress, admitted awareness of the modems but lacked clarity on their purpose or installation. They stated that the modems were already present when the cranes arrived from China and were removed in October 2023.
Rear Admiral John Vann, leading the Coast Guard cyber command, informed Congress that although vulnerabilities were identified, there have been no instances of detecting malware or other malicious software.
Cary Davis, CEO of the American Association of Port Authorities, emphasized the proactive measures taken by ports to collaborate with federal agencies and private sector experts in mitigating risks through inspections and defensive strategies.
In a separate communication, the Homeland Security Committee informed ZMPC that the unexplained equipment found on the cranes did not serve operational purposes and was not part of any contractual agreement between ZMPC and the receiving U.S. ports. The letter highlighted ZMPC’s repeated requests for remote access to crane and infrastructure systems at U.S. seaports.
In response to growing concerns, the Biden administration announced a significant investment of over $20 billion in domestically manufactured cranes to reduce reliance on Chinese-made versions.
This decision stems from cybersecurity and espionage apprehensions raised by U.S. intelligence agencies, who have also expressed alarm over China-backed cyber operations targeting critical American infrastructure systems like water and energy plants.
Industry experts are skeptical about minor support from the federal government being enough to overcome the fact that the Chinese have created a monopoly in port materials and tech.
In reality, the anti-business policies of the modern American Left which Joe Biden and the Democrats champion and preach from the rooftops is killing manufacturing in the United States and forcing companies to send it overseas.
Which, as we can see, is a major problem in many ways. The last of which, isn’t national security.
Stay tuned to the DC Daily Journal.
