By Jeffrey A. Newman Esq.
Our General Service Administration (GSA) manages and supports federal government functions including procuring products and services to federal agencies including our Department of Defense and our armed forces. Numerous government and industry reports in 2024-2025 have warned that U.S. defense supply chains, including those supporting naval shipbuilding and submarine production, remain highly exposed to Chinese-made components and subassemblies. GSA still purchases Chinese goods that end up in our military installations and our vessels.
There have been some recent enforcement actions that have significantly limited the purchase of Chinese goods, focusing on supply chain security. Under Section 889 of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), federal agencies, including the GSA, are prohibited from acquiring or using specific telecommunications and video surveillance equipment or services from certain Chinese companies and their subsidiaries. Prohibited companies include Huawei, ZTE, Hytera Communications, Hikvision, and Dahua Technology. As of January 2025, the GSA has removed drones manufactured in China from its contract offerings due to security concerns. The GSA now only offers drones from U.S.-based manufacturers. These are helpful but the matter of concern are the loopholes for smaller purchases.
Given that There have been documented incidents—such as the discovery of covert communications equipment embedded in Chinese-manufactured cranes at U.S. ports—showing China’s willingness and technical capacity to hide surveillance devices in exported equipment we should be raising our guards. Compromised parts from China have repeatedly been found across U.S. military equipment, raising alarm about possible malicious functions (such as backdoors or beacons) being included in small, seemingly mundane components.
China has the technological capability and potential supply chain access that could enable it to plant transponders or other covert tracking devices in products sold through the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA), even those ultimately destined for sensitive military environments like submarines. We are not speaking here about Chinese made videoconferencing cameras. We are talking about lamps and tables and other small items made in China and sold to GSA and placed on our subs or other military locations.
A transponder is an electronic device that automatically responds to receiving a specific signal by transmitting a pre-programmed reply signal back. Transponders are widely used in aviation, satellites, communications, and vehicle technology for identification, tracking, and control purposes.A transponder secretly embedded within a U.S. submarine could transmit its location to the Chinese military if it were designed to function as a covert tracking device with satellite transmission capability. The hidden transponder collects the submarine’s location using onboard navigation systems or its own sensors The device sends a short, encrypted burst of location data to a commercial or military communications satellite above, making it difficult to detect or jam.
I fervently hope that we find a way to work out our differences with China, but clearly China is our adversary and sees us as its adversary and we know from published reports that they spy on us in every possible way. We must cut off that capability internally. That doesn’t mean that we cannot still try to develop long term relatiosnships so that the adversarial nature of the relationship will subside for mutual benefit.
Jeffrey Newman is a whistleblower lawyer and his lawfirm represents whistleblowers reporting violations of export controls, tariff evasion, money laundering, healthcare cases and other kinds of WB cases. We represent individuals both in the United States and from other countries. Mr. Newman and his firm also represent physician whistleblowers nationside in healthcare fraud cases. Whistleblower laws in the U.S. allow individuals anywhere, with information about export control violations or tariff fraud to reveal the information as a whistleblower under The False Claims act or through the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Whistleblower Program. The Firm’s website is www.JeffNewmanLaw.com . Attorney Newman can be reached at Jeff@Jeffnewmanlaw.com or at 978-880-4758
