Yesterday the Select Commission for the strategic competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party of the House of Ministers U.S. representatives published their own report on the strategic investments that China is allegedly making in the American maritime industry, a document that highlights again as the manufacturer of port equipment Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries (ZPMC), which is owned by the Chinese state, dominate the world market for ship-to-shore cranes and creates significant cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and to the national security of both the United States and its allies. Risks that have been highlighted in recent months and that the government and the ZPMC have defined absolutely unfounded ( of 21 and 26 February and 11 March 2024).

Remembering that ZPMC currently holds almost 80% of the market of STS port cranes that are installed on port quays representatives of the Commission highlighted that "the evidence gathered during our joint investigation indicate that ZPMC could, if it so wished, act as a Troy able to help the Chinese Communist Party and the army of the People's Republic of China to exploit and manipulate the U.S. marine equipment and technology on them request. This vulnerability in our infrastructures criticism has the potential to influence Americans from a coastline to the other. Potentially sacrificing economic security to for short-term financial gain - it is - we gave the Chinese Communist Party the ability to track the movement of goods through ports or even to stop activities out of the blue Port. In the context of China's aggression in the Indo-Pacific, in case of escalation our greatest adversary geopolitical could wield this power to influence global military and commercial activity".

If the report dwells at length on the ZPMC, in addition to the possible risks caused by the use of cranes in American ports produced in China, the document also examines the participation of the Chinese groups COSCO and China Merchants Group (CMG) port activities in the ports of Long Beach, Seattle, Los Angeles, Angeles, Houston and Miami, activities that are conducted by joint ventures venture between Chinese companies and Western companies.

The report makes several recommendations to reduce risks for national security, suggesting in the short term that the Department of Homeland Security to issue immediately directives to all ports so that, in the absence of specific contractual obligations, cellular modems or other connection systems with ZPMC and so that national ports employing cranes of the Chinese company install software of monitoring of port vehicle technologies. In addition, according to the Commission, in the medium term the Congress should approve a law exempting American ports from the purchase requirements of U.S. Buy America Act products for the purchase of cranes from non-antagonistic nations by making use of subsidies federal governments. The need for to issue guidelines on port cranes for suppliers with particular reference to the components of the and subcontracting practices. In addition to recommending the purchase of STS cranes from companies in non-antagonistic nations, the The report also calls for a study of the consequences of the end of the contractual support of the ZPMC to the means and services active in the U.S. ports, looking especially at the impacts on the economy national. It is then suggested that guidelines be issued on subsidies to ports so that ports can offset the cost of purchasing STS cranes from non-EU countries antagonists. Among the long-term recommendations, the report calls for a study to be commissioned on the creation of a Crane production base in the United States.