Chinese shipping giant COSCO caught spying – Reuters
China’s state-owned shipping giant COSCO uses covert equipment on board its merchant ships to gather intelligence and intercept military communications near the coasts of target countries, including the United States. According to senior officials in the U.S. president’s administration, the company has a long-standing partnership with Beijing in the field of signals intelligence, which allows it to intercept signals from ships and aircraft in Europe, North America, and Asia.
The state-of-the-art equipment on civilian vessels is designed to study military communication technologies and developments in the field of encryption, as well as to monitor key commercial and military maritime routes. Beijing uses the collected data to strengthen its position in territorial disputes and to detect foreign military facilities early on.
Although the Pentagon added COSCO to its list of companies linked to the Chinese military in January 2025, it remains one of the world’s leading shipping companies and continues to operate container ships in U.S. ports. Donald Trump and Xi Jinping are expected to raise the issues of sensitive security risks and trade during their summit meeting in Washington later this month.
Source: Reuters.
U.S. officials previously banned equipment from Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Co. after warnings that it could be used to spy on Americans.
The U.S. House of Representatives has banned the use of the Chinese social media app TikTok on all official devices used for work in the House of Representatives and by all its staff.
We also note that the White House administration has ordered all federal agencies to remove TikTok from all government devices within 30 days.
