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Cotton, Steel call CCP LOGINK logistics platform a ‘disaster for US interests’
A Chinese ship enters Boston Harbor in 2002 / Getty Images
Colin Anderson • December 6, 2022 4:59 am
Republican lawmakers are sounding the alarm over a Chinese state-controlled logistics platform that they say could hand over “sensitive U.S. government and military data” to the Chinese Communist Party.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) and Rep. Michelle Steele (R., Calif.) urged President Joe Biden in a Nov. 30 letter to “take action to stop the spread of LOGINK, the digital system that controls the CCP’s platform Beijing offers free to ports, freight carriers and foreign countries as a “one-stop shop” for shipment tracking and data management needs. The platform — subsidized by China’s Ministry of Transport — is already in use at ports in South Korea and Japan, where the United States maintains a significant military presence. Because most U.S. military cargo is transported commercially, the CCP could use LOGINK in the Indo-Pacific and elsewhere to “collect massive amounts of sensitive business and foreign government data,” including data on U.S. military shipping, Cotton and Steel warned in its letter .
“The CCP could use its control of LOGINK to identify early trends in the movement of US military supplies and equipment through commercial ports, while denying other countries the same data on Chinese military assets,” the lawmakers wrote. “With the data that the global LOGINK system could provide, the CCP could effectively identify vital transportation nodes necessary to control the physical movement of goods. This would be a disaster for American interests.”
Cotton and Steel’s letter comes roughly two months after the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission linked LOGINK to the CCP’s efforts to increase “global reliance on China” through “domestic infrastructure” and “transportation equipment.” In that effort, more than 20 global ports have already adopted the CCP platform, a worrying trend that “could subject US military logistics to greater surveillance by Chinese intelligence and military operators” and even “allow Chinese military planners to … disrupt US military operations.” , according to the commission. As a result, Cotton and Steel are pressing the Biden administration to detail its efforts to stop the spread of LOGINK, including through a potential US alternative platform.
The Biden administration, which has until January 11 to respond to the letter, announced Washington Free Beacon that it “takes all potential cyber threats to the maritime transportation system and related infrastructure extremely seriously” and “continually evaluates the tools and authorities available to address them,” but declined to “review potential responses to specific companies that may be under consideration.” More than 25 Republicans in Congress, including Sens. Ted Cruz (Texas), Joni Ernst (Iowa), and Marsha Blackburn (Tn.) and Reps. Mike Gallagher (Dt.), Maria Salazar (Flan.) and Guy Reschenthaler (Pen.), joined to the Cotton and Steel letter.
The administration has faced intense criticism from Republicans for tapping China-soft officials to fill key roles. In September, for example, Biden appointed liberal political consultant John Podesta — who has praised China on climate change and called for direct Chinese investment in US infrastructure — to oversee $370 billion in climate spending. A month later, Biden tapped Nina Hachigian to serve in a newly created State Department position aimed at countering China’s growing influence. Khachigian worked with two CCP front groups to foster ties between Washington and Beijing before taking the job. Biden’s representative on the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Business Advisory Council, Dominic Ng, also has a long history of siding with the CCP, going so far as to criticize the United States for refusing to join Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative, which the Chinese government uses to subjugate foreign nations through direct investments in infrastructure.
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