Headline Roundup • February 23rd, 2024
Are China-Made Cranes a Security Threat? Biden Moves to Revamp US Ports
Summary from the AllSides News Team
President Joe Biden announced plans to invest billions of dollars in replacing China-made cranes at United States ports.
Details: The plan comes in response to concerns about the potential for these cranes to be exploited, disrupting shipping or posing national security risks. Rear Adm. Jay Vann, head of the U.S. Coast Guard's cyber command, told reporters Tuesday that these cranes have potentially exploitable features that could be controlled from remote locations. According to Newsweek (Center bias), the cranes, largely produced by China’s ZPMC - the world's largest crane maker - account for around 80% of the lifting equipment used at US ports. Proposed replacements will reportedly be built by a U.S. subsidiary of Japanese gantry crane maker Mitsui.
For Context: The decision to replace these cranes follows a larger initiative introduced by the Biden administration to improve national cybersecurity in maritime infrastructure through an investment of $20 billion.
How the Media Covered It: Newsweek emphasized Rear Adm. Jay Vann’s statement about the potential danger the Chinese cranes pose and included the Chinese government's response to these concerns, which it categorized as paranoia-driven. Bloomberg (Lean Left bias) mainly focused on the potential national security threats posed by the Chinese cranes and the importance of improving cybersecurity. The Daily Caller (Right bias) focused on the strategic implications of the decision, describing it as a necessary step to counter potential Chinese espionage activities and to unwind the US's dependence on China's totalitarian technologies. This summary was developed with the help of AllSides' AI technology.
Featured Coverage of this Story
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
The head of the busiest US maritime gateway said Chinese-made cranes pose a potential risk to national security, but a shortage of other countries that build the giant container-moving machines makes it challenging to address the vulnerability.
“They’re collecting data, they’re looking at information,” Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, said in an interview Thursday on Bloomberg Television’s Surveillance. “What they’re using that data for is the question.”
Biden administration officials are concerned that more than 200 ship-to-shore cranes at US ports are manufactured by China...
STR/AFP via Getty Images
The United States will invest tens of billions of dollars to boost maritime cybersecurity around its strategic seaports, including by replacing China-made container cranes that officials believe could leave American infrastructure vulnerable to sabotage.
Foreign-manufactured ship-to-shore cranes, in particular those built by China's state-owned ZPMC, have been a national security concern for several years. The heavy industries company is the world's largest crane maker, whose machines account for nearly 80 percent of the lifting equipment used at U.S. ports, according to official estimates.
"By design, these cranes may be controlled,...
David McNew/Getty Images
The Biden administration plans to spend billions on domestic-built cargo cranes to replace Chinese ones that pose a potential national security threat, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.
The investment is part of a larger plan to bolster U.S. security on the maritime stage, which includes improving standards for cybersecurity in computer networks and in foreign-built cranes operating in seaports, according to WSJ. The U.S. and intelligence agencies are concerned that China is acting on multiple fronts to commit espionage on American soil and disrupt national cybersecurity.
