FBI efforts to uncover Chinese espionage determined Huawei equipment in the US heartland could disrupt US nuclear arsenal communications
But when US counterintelligence officials began digging into the details, they found numerous red flags. The pagoda, they noted, would have been strategically placed on one of the highest points in Washington DC, just two miles from the US Capitol, a perfect spot for signals intelligence collection, multiple sources familiar with the episode told CNN.
"We cannot confirm or deny ongoing investigations, but we are committed to securing our information and communications technology and services supply chain. Protecting US persons safety and security against malign information collection is vital to protecting our economy and national security," a Commerce Department spokesperson said.Inside Huawei's connection to rural America 02:55 US counterintelligence officials have recently made a priority of publicizing threats from China.
And on Jan. 20, the Justice Department dropped a separate case against an MIT professor accused of hiding his ties to China, saying it could no longer prove its case. In February, the Biden administration shut down the China Initiative entirely. The federal government's reticence across multiple administrations to detail what it knows has led some critics to accuse the government of chasing ghosts. "It really comes down to: do you treat China as a neutral actor — because if you treat China as a neutral actor, then yeah, this seems crazy, that there's some plot behind every tree," said Anna Puglisi, a senior fellow at Georgetown University's Center for Security and Emerging Technology.