News

Don’t let China’s spies near the NYC subway
By U.S. Senator Marco Rubio
May 30, 2019
New York Post
 
If you asked New Yorkers how they would feel about riding in subway cars made in China, I’m sure they would be as enthusiastic as they are about the New England Patriots. Most Americans are skeptical of Chinese companies owned or directed by the Beijing regime — and for good reason.
 
Chinese telecoms companies, like Huawei and ZTE, are state-directed instruments of national power used by the Communist Party to destroy international competitors, undermine US companies and steal intellectual property and trade secrets.
 
The Trump administration’s recent actions against Huawei to protect critical US systems and infrastructure highlight the serious nature of the threat. But China’s attempts to undermine US national and economic security aren’t limited to our nation’s telecommunications networks. The regime in Beijing has its sights set on another target that plays a critical role in the lives of millions of Americans living in urban centers like Washington, DC and the Big Apple: our mass transit networks.
 
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In New York City, the security threats are equally concerning. The financial capital of the world, New York City is home to Wall Street, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the New York Stock Exchange, to name a few. It’s also home to the New York City Subway, which averages nearly 5.6 million riders every weekday.
 
Given the threat posed by China, it’s clear that allowing a state-directed Chinese actor, like CRRC, to intertwine high-tech transit technology within the core locations of our nation’s financial and political systems should raise serious red flags.
 
China continues to perfect the surveillance and monitoring of its own people, including omnipresent cameras, artificial intelligence-driven facial recognition and a so-called “social-credit system” that rates Chinese citizens based on their compliance with the government. Given Beijing’s desire to use these Orwellian technologies both at home and against its adversaries abroad, it is critical that our local and state government officials fully understand the security risk of allowing Chinese technology to infiltrate our networks.
 
A severe disruption in either or both of these cities could be debilitating for our nation, but it is the silent, sophisticated mining of data and information that could prove catastrophic over the long-term. Major cities should think twice before allowing China to build and have control of our transportation systems and critical infrastructure. America must recognize and respond to these threats seriously — not only for our national economy, workforce, and manufacturing industries, but for the safety and privacy of our people.
 
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