US accuses COSCO of using concealed equipment to gather military signals
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "US accuses COSCO of using concealed equipment to gather military signals")
The 280-metre-long Cosco Hong Kong container ship enters the Port of Melbourne, Australia's largest container port, in Melbourne on June 10, 2026. Photograph: (AFP)
Two Trump administration officials have accused Chinese shipping giant COSCO of using concealed equipment to collect military communications, allegations Beijing denies.
Two senior officials in the Trump administration have accused China's state-owned shipping giant COSCO of using concealed equipment on its ships to spy on the military communications of nations along the coastline, including the US. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity and did not disclose any details about the military hardware used but said they were "sophisticated signals intelligence collection" platforms, not routine communications hardware.
The officials alleged that COSCO had a decade-long intelligence-collection partnership with Beijing which allows China to collect communication signals from vessels and aircraft operating across Europe, North America and Asia. They claimed that it also allows China to monitor key shipping lanes and maritime routes crucial for trade and military navigation.
The Chinese embassy in the US denied these allegations, saying that they were an attempt to vilify China. It claimed that China would never ask any company or individual to "collect or provide data, information or intelligence located abroad against local laws."
"We oppose vilifying China by peddling the so-called 'intelligence collection' narrative, which is totally baseless," said Liu Chang, spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in Washington.
Washington has not provided any proof backing these allegations. A 2025 study published by the US Naval War College also claimed that China is using fishing and commercial shipping fleets for intelligence and surveillance gathering. Pentagon has previously listed COSCO as associated with the Chinese Military, though it did not sanction it. China's National Intelligence Law explicitly mandates that all domestic organisations and citizens must cooperate with state intelligence operations. COSCO remains one of the top global shipping companies, with roughly 10.6 per cent of the global market share. It also remains one of the largest shipping companies calling at US ports and maintains several terminal service joint ventures for container ships at US ports.
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The Trump administration last year planned to implement billions of dollars in port fees on Chinese shipping companies, including COSCO, in an effort to revitalise the atrophied US shipbuilding and maritime industries. But later decided against it following an October meeting with Xi, when they agreed to a one-year trade truce, which is likely to be over by October 2026. Chinese President Xi Jinping is scheduled to visit Washington in September 2026.
