Report: Pentagon Officials, Lawmakers Warn of Chinese Spy Cranes at U.S. Ports

National-security and Pentagon officials are warning about the potential use of giant Chinese-made and operated cranes as intelligence collection tools at United States ports, which are not only critical for U.S. shipping but the U.S. military.

These cranes, made by Chinese manufacturer ZPMC (Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Co.), contain sophisticated sensors that can register and track the provenance and destination of containers, prompting concern among officials and lawmakers that China could track U.S. military operations around the world, according to a recent report in the Wall Street Journal.

The cranes manufactured by ZPMC account for nearly 80% of ship-to-shore cranes in use at U.S. ports, and are operated through Chinese-made software, supported by Chinese nationals working on two-year U.S. visas, the report said. The cranes could also provide China a way to disrupt the flow of goods, according to Bill Evanina, a former top counterintelligence official cited by the WSJ.

ZPMC is a subsidiary of China Communications Construction Co. (CCCC), which is a leading contractor for the Chinese government’s massive Belt and Road initiative to build infrastructure and trade routes from China to the rest of the world that seeks to circumvent the U.S.’s dominance of the high seas.

In 2020, U.S. authorities limited five CCCC units’ access to U.S. technology, given Chinese laws that give its military the ability to access data scooped up by Chinese civilian firms.

Chris Wolski, a former cybersecurity official for the port of Houston told the paper, “It wouldn’t be hard for an attacker to disable one sensor on a crane and prevent the crane from moving.”

A Chinese Embassy representative called those concerns “paranoia-driven,” according to the report, but according to the report, the cranes have raised alarm throughout the U.S. government, after ports in Virginia, South Carolina, and Maryland that are at times used by nearby U.S. military bases purchased new cranes.

The FBI in 2021 reportedly searched a cargo ship delivering ZPMC cranes to the Baltimore port and found “intelligence-gathering equipment to board.”

Also in 2021, the Defense Intelligence Agency conducted a classified assessment found that China could “potentially throttle port traffic or gather intelligence on military equipment being shipped, the report said.

Defense officials also briefed the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission last year. The concern over cranes became a “unique point of interest” early in the Trump administration, former cybersecurity official Sean Plankey told the WSJ.

Where would someone attack first and how would they do it?” Plankey said, adding that officials determined that if China’s military could access the cranes, they could potentially shut down U.S. ports without using their navy.

U.S. lawmakers are also taking the concerns seriously.

The 2023 National Defense Authorization Act requires the Transportation Department’s maritime administrator to produce an unclassified study by the year’s end on whether foreign-manufactured cranes pose a cybersecurity or national-security threat at U.S. ports, as highlighted by the WSJ.

Last year, Rep. Carlos Giménez (R-FL) introduced legislation to ban future U.S. purchases of Chinese cranes.

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