The US Congress has approved a measure prohibiting the Pentagon from using any seaport worldwide reliant on the Chinese logistics platform LOGINK, the Voice of America (VOA) reported. According to Senators Tom Cotton and Representative Michelle Steel, LOGINK allows Beijing to monitor America\u2019s military supply chain by tracking cargo and ship movements through commercial ports.<\/p>\n
Their amendment to the National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA) for fiscal 2024 also restricts federal funding for ports using LOGINK. The bill, passed on December 14, is set to take effect six months after President Joe Biden signs the NDAA, which is pending. In an email interview with VOA, Representative Steel highlighted the severity of LOGINK\u2019s threat, operating under the Chinese Communist Party, and expressed concern about Beijing\u2019s investments in over 100 ports across 60 nations.<\/p>\n
The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC), which keeps track of the national security implications of US-China trade, noted that LOGINK\u2019s visibility into global shipping and supply chains could expose US supply chain vulnerabilities and track shipments of US military cargo. \u201cLOGINK\u2019s visibility into global shipping and supply chains could also enable the Chinese government to identify U.S. supply chain vulnerabilities and to track shipments of U.S. military cargo on commercial freight,\u201d USCC 2022 report stated.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the Pentagon\u2019s US Transportation Command told VOA in an email on Tuesday, \u201cUSTRANSCOM understands the visibility into global logistics China has through their Belt and Road Initiative and related public-private arrangements.\u201d LOGINK collaborates with over 20 ports globally, encompassing six in Japan, five in South Korea, and one in Malaysia. Additionally, there are at least nine ports across Europe and three in the Middle East affiliated with LOGINK.<\/p>\n
Notably, the commission\u2019s report indicates the absence of LOGINK port contracts in the US, revealing that Beijing subsidises this cost-free platform. Under the NDAA, Congress is mandated to commission a study on how foreign influence in the 15 largest American container ports \u201ccould affect\u201d national and economic security.<\/p>\n
Ivan Kanapathy, a former National Security Council director and current senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said, \u201cChinese companies are operating ports in the United States, which poses a national security risk to our critical infrastructure. This report will spur policy to counter that risk.\u201d The Chinese Embassy referred inquiries to China\u2019s General Administration of Customs, which did not respond to VOA\u2019s email inquiries.<\/p>\n
Michael Wessel, a USCC member, hailed the legislation as a \u201cmajor step\u201d to address the LOGINK threat, underscoring the need for an alternative. Gabe Collins, a fellow at Rice University\u2019s Baker Institute, highlighted the absence of a viable alternative to LOGINK on its scale, estimating it gathers data on up to half of global shipping capacity. The US ban signals a need for an alternative and requires negotiations with allies and partners to remove LOGINK from their ports. The International Association of Ports and Harbours is yet to determine its members\u2019 response to the new legislation.<\/p>\n
Randall Schriver, former assistant secretary of defence for Indo-Pacific security affairs, revealed European leaders\u2019 unawareness of LOGINK\u2019s monitoring capacity, emphasising the need for thorough consideration of such matters, Voice of America reported.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The US Congress has approved a measure prohibiting the Pentagon from using any seaport worldwide reliant on the Chinese logistics\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":18798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[5894,158,5895,5899,5867,5875,5897,5896,2676,5045,5898,672,1738],"class_list":["post-18794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aerospace-defense","tag-cargo","tag-china","tag-chinese-logistics-platform-logink","tag-economic-security","tag-national-security","tag-pentagon","tag-representative-michelle-steel","tag-senators-tom-cotton","tag-shipments","tag-spying","tag-the-international-association-of-ports-and-harbours","tag-us-congress","tag-us-military"],"reading_time":"3 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}