Chinese-made cargo cranes that have been flagged as a security concern by an ongoing congressional probe in the United States are widely deployed throughout Canada’s ports.

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A House of Representatives’ joint committee said its investigation turned up evidence of cellular modems on the Chinese-made port cranes that “do not appear in any way to contribute to the operation … raising significant questions as to their intended applications.”

The cranes in question were manufactured by Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Co. Ltd. (ZPMC), and the U.S. House probe noted the company manufactures its cranes at a site adjacent to a shipyard where the Chinese Communist Party’s Navy builds its “most advanced” warships.

“This proximity to … (the) main shipyard provides malicious CCP entities, including its intelligence agencies and security services, with ample opportunity to modify U.S.-bound maritime equipment, exploit it to malfunction, or otherwise facilitate cyber espionage thereby compromising U.S. maritime critical infrastructure,” the U.S. House committee said in a Feb 29. letter to ZPMC.

So far, the Canadian government has not voiced similar concerns in public. A spokesman for the Ministry of Public Safety did not provide comment by publication time.

The Chinese embassy in Canada declined to answer questions, but referred to comments made by Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin at a press conference on Jan. 22 that U.S. politicians are being anticompetitive.

“For those U.S. politicians, anything advanced from China can be a ‘threat’ and must be stopped by all means; perhaps shirts and socks are the only type of Chinese exports that do not threaten the U.S., Wang Wenbin said. “This is sheer bullying and hegemonism.”

Big share of market

ZPMC controls an estimated 80 per cent of the U.S. market for port cranes, according to the U.S. House Joint Committee, and it may well have a similar share in Canada.

Port authorities in Canada do not own or operate terminals or their equipment, so “it is up to independent terminal operators to decide on what equipment their operations require,” Alex Munro, a spokesman for the Port of Vancouver, said.

Terminal operators at the ports in Halifax, Prince Rupert, B.C., and Vancouver have all announced investments in the company’s technology in recent years.

“We just got two of them in the last six months,” said Kevin Piper, president of the International Longshoremen’s Association Local 269 at the Port of Halifax.

Piper estimated that seven of the port’s nine ship-to-shore cranes — which are used to unload shipping vessels — were manufactured by ZPMC, while the two others were manufactured by a German company.

He said the cranes are “highly advanced” machines that require specialized training to maintain and operate.

“It’s surprising,” he said about the security concerns raised about the ZPMC cranes, “but I guess in this day and age, nothing should be surprising.”

Marko Dekovic, vice-president of public affairs at GCT Global Container Terminals Inc., said the Vancouver port also uses ZPMC cranes, but has not been contacted by either U.S. or Canadian government officials. He said the port does not have any concerns about using the cranes as they “go through a rigorous commissioning process.”

China’s maritime power grows

The U.S. congressional probe raised two concerns about the modems found on the cranes. First, that they can collect data on container traffic at ports, which could be sent back to China via the modems. Second, they connect to operational components of the crane and that could potentially be used to disable the crane, which fits into a broader concern in the U.S. about China’s growing power over maritime traffic.

China has amassed a large naval fleet, manufactures the bulk of global shipping containers and has established footholds in ports.

David Skillicorn, a professor at Queen’s University’s School of Computing in Kingston, Ont., said the cranes fit into an escalating “arms race” among governments in the cybersphere.

He said many modern devices are connected to the internet, and cranes at a port could be expected to have modems that communicate to a central hub inside the port, protected by a firewall.

“That’s all kind of routine,” he said. “But you don’t really expect the cranes to be making calls on the cell network that could be to anywhere in the world and to completely bypass the firewall, and that’s what makes the U.S. Congress unhappy.”

Skillicorn said the ports may continue using the ZPMC cranes even though there could be technology embedded inside them that allows the Chinese government to collect data and possibly disrupt activity.

“You’re never going to be able to guarantee that there aren’t other ones hidden much better inside, especially something the size of a crane,” he said.

But Skillicorn said the reason companies and governments purchase Chinese technology is because it’s often cheaper, and that opens the possibility of future espionage threats.

Canada has taken some steps to guard against threats from China. In January, the federal Liberals opened a commission to investigate whether China interfered in recent elections. And in 2022, the federal government banned wireless carriers from installing equipment from Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. and ZTE Corp. — two of China’s largest tech companies — in 5G mobile networks.

“There are many hostile actors who are ready to exploit vulnerabilities in our defences,” then-public safety minister Marco Mendicino said at the time.

In December 2023, Quebec banned the use of technology from Zhejiang Dahua Technology Co. Ltd. and Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co. Ltd., two electronics companies that make video-surveillance and other telecommunications equipment.

Alex He, a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation in Waterloo, Ont., who specializes in digital governance in China, said Canada’s relationship with the Asian giant must be understood as part of the escalating trade war between it and the U.S.

But Canada is a less important trading partner for China than the U.S., which remains a larger export market and produces computer chips and other technological products.

“In the near future, I cannot see any improvement in the relationship,” he said about Canada and China.

• Email: gfriedman@postmedia.com

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