"US Evaluates That Chinese Huawei Equipment Could Disrupt Nuclear Weapon Communications"

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other security agencies have concluded that telecommunications equipment installed by Huawei, China’s largest telecommunications equipment company, in the United States could interfere with communications related to U.S. nuclear weapons, CNN reported on the 23rd (local time). CNN’s investigation revealed that the U.S. began identifying and taking measures on this issue during the Barack Obama administration.

CNN, after interviewing more than ten current and former national security officials, reported that the reason behind the U.S. decision in 2019 during the Donald Trump administration to remove Huawei equipment installed in the U.S. and replace it with other equipment was due to these concerns. Military authorities concluded that Huawei equipment could restrict not only civilian communications but also military radio frequencies and even disrupt communications of the U.S. Strategic Command, which oversees nuclear weapons.

According to CNN, in the early Obama administration, the FBI detected suspicious communication patterns along Highway 25 in Colorado and Montana and roads leading to Nebraska. This was because the high-traffic sections connected to some of the most secretive military bases, including nuclear weapon storage facilities.

At that time, small rural telecommunications providers were installing inexpensive Chinese-made telecommunications equipment along Highway 25 to reduce costs. The largest provider in the area, Viaero, signed a contract with Huawei at the end of 2011 to upgrade to 3G, and over ten years installed Huawei equipment on about 1,000 towers across five states, which is a representative example.

A source told CNN that federal authorities began to focus on the spread of Huawei equipment around military bases at this point and grew concerned that Huawei was selling equipment cheaply at prices that seemed unlikely to generate profit. Subsequently, authorities began analyzing the Huawei equipment itself, and FBI investigations revealed that this equipment could identify and interfere with Department of Defense communications.

At the same time, around 2014, Viaero installed cameras along Highway 25 to provide real-time weather and traffic updates, which became problematic as it allowed the capture of movement and activity patterns of U.S. military equipment and personnel. Intelligence agencies assessed that China could not only view the real-time footage from these cameras but also potentially control them through hacking.

In 2019, these investigation results were reported to the White House, and the U.S. government instructed small rural telecommunications service providers receiving government subsidies to remove Huawei and another Chinese telecommunications equipment company, ZTE’s equipment, and replace it with other equipment. The U.S. Congress also prepared a compensation budget of $1.9 billion (approximately 2.5 trillion won) in 2020 to facilitate the removal of Huawei and ZTE equipment. CNN reported that although 24,000 applications for the removal of Chinese-made equipment were submitted to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), no compensation support has been provided, and no actual removals have taken place yet.

Earlier, CNN also revealed a behind-the-scenes story that the U.S. was initially tempted by China’s proposal in 2017 to build a Chinese garden in the National Arboretum in Washington, D.C., with a $100 million investment but eventually scrapped the plan. The investigation found that the tower to be built in the Chinese garden would be located at the highest point in Washington, D.C., making it an optimal location for signal intelligence collection. The fact that China hoped to send this tower to the U.S. through a diplomatic pouch exempt from U.S. customs inspection further raised suspicions among authorities.

The Department of Commerce has launched its own investigation since the Biden administration took office last year to determine whether more urgent measures are needed to remove Chinese equipment from U.S. telecommunications networks.