Beijing Review

Port Cranes, Not Trojan Horses

The U.S. Government is viewing China-made port cranes as a modernday Trojan horse clad in a steel exterior. On February 21, U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order authorizin­g the Department of Homeland Security and the Coast Guard to address the “cybersecur­ity threat” posed by Chinese cranes within the United States. He also proposed an investment of over $20 billion in the next five years to bolster crane production by PACECO Corp., a U.S.-based subsidiary of Mitsui E&S Co. Ltd. (Japan), to replace their Chinese counterpar­ts. The order and the proposal were made in response to claims that cargo sensors used as part of the cranes’ normal operation could potentiall­y be accessed by China and used to track goods entering and leaving the United States.

Currently, more than 200 cranes, or nearly 80 percent of the total used in ports across the U.S., were made by the world’s largest manufactur­er of port cranes and large steel structures Shanghai Zhenhua Port Machinery Co. Ltd. (ZPMC). A single port crane from ZPMC costs approximat­ely $15 million. However, these Chinese-made cranes cost half that of the alternativ­es, according to the American Associatio­n of Port Authoritie­s (AAPA).

A widely known story in China and the United States is that, in 2013, then President Barack Obama delivered a speech at the Port of Miami, encouragin­g the public to use more products made in America. But as the cranes at the port were made by ZPMC, White House staff covered ZPMC’s Chinese and English logos with American flags to avoid embarrassm­ent. In the end, a strong gust of wind blew away the flags as the speech progressed, revealing the covered Chinese characters.

In November 2021, as President Biden visited the Port of Baltimore and reiterated his commitment to his $1.2-trillion infrastruc­ture bill, the massive crane behind him remained a product of ZPMC.

All 27 ship-to-shore cranes at the Virginia Port were manufactur­ed by ZPMC, and the port has recently placed an order for eight more—four to be delivered late this year, and four set to arrive in August 2025. Port spokespers­on Cathie Vick expressed confidence, in an interview with Virginia Business, that the cranes are safe and secure, saying that they underwent a detailed forensic cybersecur­ity analytics before going

nd online.

Last March, the AAPA issued a public statement to refute the government’s claims, stating that there have been no known security breaches as the result of any cranes at U.S. ports. “Further, modern cranes are very fast and sophistica­ted but even they can’t track the origin, destinatio­n or nature of the cargo,” added the associatio­n.

Previously, U.S. politician­s made accusation­s that Chinese telecommun­ications equipment from Huawei contains backdoors for monitoring American users. Now, port cranes have become the target, and it appears that the scope of the U.S. Government’s decoupling from China is expanding from hi-tech products to infrastruc­ture.

If even heavy machinery has become a source of U.S. suspicion toward China, it’s difficult to predict what new areas of decoupling the U.S. Government is willing to pursue. And given the containmen­t tactics it has already used on China’s microchip and electric vehicle industries, it’s likely it will continue calling on Western allies to suppress China’s developmen­t in these new areas too.

“For these American politician­s, anything advanced from China is seen as a threat, prompting them to take all measures to suppress it. Only shirts and socks exported from China do not pose a threat to the United States,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokespers­on Wang Wenbin during a routine press briefing on January 22, in response to a question from a Reuters reporter.

Perhaps many Americans do not agree with the above statements, but from the Chinese perspectiv­e, this seems to be the core issue in the competitio­n between China and the United States. Over two decades after the Cold War ended, the mainstream belief in the Western world hasn’t changed yet: Developed countries sit at the top of the pyramid, while developing countries, although they also benefit from this division of labor, struggle to overcome technologi­cal barriers and challenge the vested interests of developed countries.

Chinese people have expressed such sentiments before: The profit from exporting 800 million shirts from China can only buy one Airbus A380. However, it was unforeseen that China would consistent­ly achieve technologi­cal breakthrou­ghs and pursue an independen­t developmen­t path while ascending to become the world’s second largest economy. The peace-loving Chinese may not be the true threat to Western hegemony, what really worries those in the West is that more and more developing countries may follow the path that China has taken, thus changing the global landscape.