ZPMC rebuts U.S. spying accusation over cellular modems
The Chinese crane maker, for the first time, details its answers after a year's rising public suspicion from the Pentagon, U.S. national security officials, and Congress.
In one of the most bizarre and sensational stories in the U.S. recently about the “China threat,” cranes made by state-owned Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Company Limited (ZPMC) were allegedly found to include “communications equipment that doesn’t appear to support normal operations,” and “could be a national-security threat at America’s ports.”
The information, apparently, was proactively and selectively leaked from an “ongoing congressional investigation” that otherwise hasn’t opened its findings to public scrutiny but has timely produced a letter to ZPMC by a few Congressmen with a track record of hawkishness on China.
The Wall Street Journal and then CNN, Fox Business, Business Insider, and several other media outlets rushed to release it within a day or two - on March 7 and 8, which the Congressmen then bragged “Here’s what the media is saying about the investigation,” despite that they are the sole meaningful source of the reports.
Little wonder that thirteen out of the twenty-three paragraphs of the WSJ “exclusive” story came from the congressional probe, and one paragraph is the Chinese response
ZPMC, a Chinese state-owned company, didn’t respond to requests for comment. Liu Pengyu, a spokesman at the Chinese embassy in Washington, didn’t address specific questions about the modems but said claims that China-made cranes pose a national-security risk to the U.S. is “entirely paranoia” and amounted to “abusing national power to obstruct normal economic and trade cooperation.”
It wasn’t until March 10 that ZPMC posted, on its website a pictured statement such that visitors couldn’t copy and paste anything directly from it, but would have to manually type them should they wish to quote it. (I’m just not gonna type them.)
That it was two or three days after the news cycle means it has a neglectable chance of leaving a public impression. Plus, the statement still includes too few details.
It was the Journal’s third story - by my account - citing U.S. sources on ZPMC, which didn’t respond to requests for comment in March 2023
Some national-security and Pentagon officials have compared ship-to-shore cranes made by the China-based manufacturer, ZPMC, to a Trojan horse.
but quietly released a pictured statement on March 9, 2023
and wasn’t asked for comment in Feburary 2024
The Biden administration plans to invest billions in the domestic manufacturing of cargo cranes, seeking to counter fears that the prevalent use of China-built cranes with advanced software at many U.S. ports poses a potential national-security risk…
The Chinese can track the origin, destination and other data of the U.S. military’s containerized materiel to determine exactly where the military is shipping it, Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost, the commander of U.S. Transportation Command, told the Journal last year.
“We look to go to the berths that don’t have the ZPMC cranes,” she said, referring to the China-based manufacturer. With those cranes in many ports across the country and around the world, she said, “We try not to use that deliberately, [and] when we talk to our commercial providers, they know what that means as well.”
Last week, the Journal’s fourth story in a year after the Congressmen visited Port Miami said ZPMC, again, didn’t respond. (The Journal most likely simply missed the two pictured statements, by then already on ZPMC’s website, otherwise it should have quoted it, per best practice in journalism.)
Xinhua, China’s state press agency, on Saturday/yesterday, April 6 - published a Chinese-language report with detailed rebuttals from ZPMC.
A full day after that report dropped, the English-language services of neither Xinhua nor other Chinese media outlets carried it. It is therefore little surprise that no U.S. media outlet has noticed it. By now, there is nothing about it on Twitter.
Below is my English translation of the Xinhua account, which, in my opinion, could still use more technicalities and less opininating.
All highlights, photos, and videos below are added by me - Zichen Wang
新闻调查丨美炮制“中国起重机威胁论”完全站不住脚
News Investigation | The U.S.' Fabricated "Chinese Crane Threat Theory" Completely Lacks Foundation
Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, April 6th - The recent U.S. hyped "Chinese crane threat theory," which alleges that cranes exported by the Chinese enterprise Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Company Limited (ZPMC) have been installed with cellular modems for remote control, posing a threat to U.S. national security, is entirely unfounded.
Experts from within the industry, in an exclusive interview with reporters from Xinhua News Agency, have pointed out that the so-called "Chinese crane threat theory" hyped by the U.S. is completely without merit. For those within the industry, the U.S. actions are technically perplexing and politically seen as an attempt to promote decoupling from China and finding excuses to replace "Made in China" (cranes).
Chinese cranes do not come equipped with modems unless specifically requested by clients
Recent claims by The Wall Street Journal and other U.S. media outlets suggest that nearly 80% of quayside container cranes currently in use at American ports are manufactured by ZPMC. The U.S. Congress has raised concerns that these Chinese-made cranes, equipped with cellular modems for remote operations, could pose a "potential espionage threat," fearing the cranes could be utilized for spying activities.
U.S. media reported that investigations by the U.S. House of Representatives discovered that contracts between American ports and ZPMC did not stipulate the installation of cellular modems, which could potentially be exploited by China for espionage, potentially undermining trade competitors, or disrupting U.S. supply chains and economic operations.
Tang Qingyun 唐青赟, a senior engineer at the design and research institute of ZPMC 振华重工设计研究院高级工程师, said that 99% of the cranes produced by the company do not have cellular modems installed at the time of production, with the rare exceptions being specifically requested by clients. The software for these cranes' control systems is provided by multinational companies such as ABB from Switzerland or Siemens from Germany, based on customer demands. After delivery, networking, operation, and maintenance belongs solely to the customers, with no possibility for ZPMC's involvement.
Regarding the installation of cellular modems on cranes at U.S. ports, Tang mentioned two possibilities: either the customer, namely the U.S. port operators, independently purchased the modems and other components for networking, which is not a factory configuration by ZPMC; or the customer specified the purchase of cranes equipped with modems at the time of order. A simple check of the product batches and numbers would reveal the truth.
Guan Tongxian 管彤贤, former president of ZPMC 振华重工前总裁, recently noted in an article that the Chinese-made cranes under U.S. investigation have been progressively added to U.S. ports over the past 30 years, all selected through strict "international competitive bidding" based on technical parameters specified by the U.S. and were inspected and accepted by third-party supervisory teams employed by the ports. Before the U.S. smear campaign, these cranes were never accused of posing a "threat to national security."
(Then U.S. President Barack Obama in front of ZPMC cranes in Port Miami in 2016)
The report by The Wall Street Journal also undermines the U.S. claim of unawareness. An anonymous U.S. port operator quoted by the newspaper acknowledged that the contracts did not include these modems, but the port was aware of their presence. The purpose of their installation was to provide "mobile diagnostics and monitoring" services, although the port had not registered for the service.
In a partially redacted December letter to the committee seen by the Journal, an unidentified U.S. port operator said that the modems weren’t part of an existing contract, but that the port had been aware of their installations on the cranes and that they were intended for a “mobile diagnostic and monitoring” service the port didn’t enroll in. — WSJ report
Modems are essential for port automation
The installation of cellular modems on cranes, increasingly common in recent years, is a necessity for automated, intelligent, and unmanned operations at ports and freight stations.
Tang Qingyun said that these devices, using 4G or 5G wireless communication bands, facilitate data transmission between the crane and the operator's control room, creating an Internet of Things within the port or freight station. The data generated by the cranes during operation is transmitted to the control room for production monitoring, scheduling, and equipment maintenance.
Tang further stressed that the cellular modems equipped on cranes pose no "security risk" to U.S. operators.
Firstly, the cranes connect to an internal network (port LAN) rather than the external internet, communicating only with the port control room, unable to transmit data externally without authorization.
Secondly, in remote operations, the information collected or received by the crane's automation software and hardware, such as work orders, port layouts, containers, and operational vehicles, interfaces solely with the dock operating system or equipment management system, not provided to the crane manufacturer.
Lastly, if the cellular modem does not connect to the internet, it can only serve as a general communication tool, incapable of any other function.
The multifaceted motives behind the U.S.'s creation of the "crane threat theory" are clear
The American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA) stated in March last year that there is no evidence to suggest Chinese-made cranes are used as spy tools, even modern cranes cannot track the origin, destination, or nature of goods.
Washington, D.C. — The American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA) has existed for 111 years to share collective knowledge and best practices on port security and safety. American public port authorities band together when it comes to security, safety, serving the public, serving the military, and serving the national interest.
Today AAPA clarified the record on recent reports that cranes sourced from China at ports pose a national security threat.
There have been no known security breaches as the result of any cranes at U.S. ports, despite alarmist media reports. Further, modern cranes are very fast and sophisticated but even they can't track the origin, destination, or nature of the cargo. — statement by AAPA
What, then, is the U.S.'s motive for reviving the "Chinese crane threat theory" at this juncture?
In the noise about "Chinese cranes threatening U.S. national security," U.S. President Joe Biden recently signed an executive order announcing an investment of over $20 billion over the next five years to replace foreign-made cranes with those manufactured in the U.S.; this funding will support the construction of cranes by the U.S. subsidiary of Japan's Mitsui & Co.
