On Tuesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) reacted to reports that officials are concerned that Chinese cranes could be used to spy on port traffic in the United States by calling for greater declassification of information on Chinese companies spying in the U.S. and noted that there are similar issues with the large percentage of drones in America that are made in China.
Warner said, [relevant remarks begin around 2:35] “I think one of the things that we have not done a good job on is, if we in the intelligence community find examples where Chinese companies are following the directions of the Communist Party and…using these tools for spying, we need to declassify more of this. I think about Huawei under President Trump. We called out that it was a problem, and — but it took us a while before we declassified enough information to prove the case that it was a national security threat. So, now, Bret, we’re spending American taxpayer dollar[s] to rip out Huawei equipment from different communities because we know it’s a national security threat and we’re finding the same as we convince our allies, particularly in Europe, to take out Huawei equipment. We need a comprehensive — rather than this whack-a-mole approach, let’s take on this company or that application, we need a rules-based, comprehensive approach that will also require the intelligence community to lay out the facts so we can make the case.”
He continued, “On the question of cranes, we’ve got a port in Virginia. I know we’ve got some of these Chinese cranes in place. If there’s evidence, I’d like to see it. I know — I think about an area where I’ve been active as well, the field of drones. 80%-plus of commercial drones that are used in America are made in China. I think we need to realize that in — at least in 2023, national security goes well beyond tanks and guns and ships and planes. It really does go into who controls each of these technology domains.”
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