By China’s state-owned shipping giant COSCO has allegedly spent years using concealed equipment aboard commercial vessels to intercept military communications near the United States and other countries, according to senior Trump administration officials.
Two officials familiar with the operation told Reuters that sophisticated signals-intelligence equipment hidden aboard COSCO vessels gives Beijing the ability to collect communications involving military ships and aircraft across North America, Europe and Asia.
The equipment is reportedly designed to collect information about military communications technology and advances in encryption while mapping important military and commercial shipping routes. U.S. officials said the intelligence can help China conduct maritime reconnaissance, identify potential military targets and provide early warning.
The allegations would turn one of the world’s largest commercial shipping fleets into something more than an economic asset for Beijing: a global intelligence network capable of sailing directly into some of the world’s most strategically important ports.
COSCO did not respond to Reuters. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, White House and Pentagon also did not respond to requests for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Chinese Commercial Ships Could Have A Second Mission
National-security experts said the allegations should force the United States to reconsider the freedom Chinese state-controlled vessels currently enjoy in American waters.
“This is a very serious accusation and if true should lead legislators in the United States and abroad to put in place safeguards in and around both military facilities and civilian ports,” Zack Cooper, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “I suspect that many in Congress would support a blanket ban on COSCO operations in US waters and perhaps lead to additional pressure on Chinese-operated ports and port infrastructure around the world.”
James Holmes, who holds the J. C. Wylie Chair of Maritime Strategy at the U.S. Naval War College, warned that American officials should assume Chinese commercial platforms could serve Beijing’s military interests.
“I think it’s fair to assume any Chinese platform or any platform containing Chinese components is trying to gather intelligence at all times,” Holmes told the DCNF. “It goes beyond surveillance, by the way. Containerized missiles and drones are all the rage now, so any Chinese container ship is a potential armed auxiliary cruiser. Think about Ukraine’s raid against a Russian military airfield from a commercial truck bearing drones. San Diego, Norfolk, et al. need to be on guard.”
Christopher H. Sharman, director of the China Maritime Studies Institute at the U.S. Naval War College, said COSCO’s massive international footprint could give Beijing access to locations that would be more difficult for Chinese military or intelligence vessels to approach openly.
“COSCO operates a large fleet of commercial vessels around the world,” Sharman told the DCNF. “That global presence could provide Beijing with access to maritime environments and locations that would otherwise be more difficult to reach using dedicated government or military vessels. The same global reach that makes COSCO commercially valuable also makes its fleet potentially valuable to Beijing for pursuing national-security objectives worldwide.”
Sharman emphasized that he was speaking in his personal capacity and not for the U.S. government.
He also pointed to the political structure aboard Chinese state-owned merchant vessels.
“One feature of China’s state-owned maritime sector that is particularly relevant is the presence of political commissars aboard PRC oceangoing commercial vessels, including those operated by COSCO,” Sharman told the DCNF. “If the PRC government sought to direct a COSCO vessel to support intelligence-collection activities, the political commissar would provide an established Party presence aboard the ship through which such requirements could be communicated.”
Pentagon Already Identified COSCO As Military-Linked
The claims are especially significant because the Pentagon has already formally identified COSCO as connected to the Chinese military.
In January 2025, the Defense Department added COSCO to its list of “Chinese military companies” operating directly or indirectly in the United States. The Pentagon said the list is intended to identify companies contributing to Beijing’s Military-Civil Fusion strategy, through which ostensibly civilian Chinese companies, universities and research institutions can support the modernization of the People’s Liberation Army.
COSCO nevertheless continues operating in American ports and participating in container-terminal ventures, Reuters reported.
The Federal Maritime Commission said it has not previously determined whether intelligence collection by a foreign carrier would constitute an “unfavorable shipping condition” under federal maritime law.
“The Commission identifies COSCO as a government-controlled carrier of the People’s Republic of China,” Joel Graham, special legal and operations advisor in the Office of the Chairman at the Federal Maritime Commission, told the DCNF. “The Commission has broad authority to investigate the activities of foreign carriers, including government-controlled carriers, to evaluate whether their practices cause unfavorable shipping conditions in US foreign trade … The Commission has not previously addressed whether alleged intelligence collection activities would constitute such a practice.”
The allegations also fit warnings issued by American military researchers. An April 2025 U.S. Naval War College report found that China’s maritime militia includes reconnaissance units and intelligence personnel tasked with collecting and transmitting information to the PLA. Researchers also found that Chinese military scholars had proposed stationing intelligence personnel aboard Chinese-owned or operated commercial vessels traveling overseas.
A Broader Chinese Intelligence Strategy
The COSCO allegations fit a much larger pattern of Beijing using civilian institutions, commercial relationships and ostensibly private organizations to advance state intelligence and military objectives.
New Conservative Post reported last month that some of America’s highest-ranking retired military officers participated for years in private discussions organized in cooperation with the China Association for International Friendly Contact, an organization that U.S. investigators have linked to China’s military intelligence and political-warfare apparatus. Congressional researchers have described the organization as conducting intelligence collection as well as “propaganda and perception management campaigns.”
NCP has also reported that an individual with extensive ties to Chinese security and United Front organizations recently purchased a building roughly 650 feet from the White House. Former intelligence officials warned that the location could potentially be used for electronic surveillance.
Earlier NCP reporting detailed allegations of widespread Chinese intelligence gathering at Stanford University, where researchers and students described concerns about Beijing collecting information on sensitive American technology and research.
Taken together, those cases highlight one of the central problems presented by China’s Military-Civil Fusion strategy: the line separating a Chinese commercial enterprise from the Chinese Communist Party’s national-security apparatus can be difficult to draw.
Trump Administration Temporarily Suspended Shipping Fees
The latest allegations also arrive during a temporary easing of Trump administration measures targeting China’s dominance of global shipping.
The administration imposed Section 301 fees on Chinese shipping operators and Chinese-built vessels as part of its effort to rebuild American shipbuilding and reduce Beijing’s control over maritime trade.
Those measures were suspended for one year beginning Nov. 10, 2025, following a trade agreement between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The suspension runs through Nov. 9, 2026.
The COSCO allegations could now increase pressure on Washington to reconsider how Chinese state-controlled vessels are treated when operating near American ports and military installations.
Beijing Denies Allegations
China rejected the claims.
“We oppose vilifying China by peddling the so-called ‘intelligence collection’ narrative, which is totally baseless,” Reuters reported, citing Chinese Embassy spokesperson Liu Chang.
Liu also told Reuters that Beijing would not direct Chinese companies to illegally obtain information overseas.
But if the U.S. officials’ account is substantiated, the implications extend well beyond COSCO. It would mean a commercial shipping fleet already identified by the Pentagon as military-linked has been able to move through American and allied waters while simultaneously serving as a worldwide intelligence-collection platform for Beijing.
The question for Washington is no longer simply how much of the global shipping industry China controls. It is what China has been doing with that access.
