[…]
A new analysis of data on scanners drawn from AidData’s Global Chinese Development Finance Dataset reveals that China’s provision of aid and credit for the dissemination of customs inspection equipment abroad—from providers like Nuctech, a Chinese partially state-owned company—is extensive. Despite increasing scrutiny of Chinese equipment used in critical infrastructure like ports, scanners provided by Chinese companies and financed by Chinese donors and lenders are still being widely distributed around the globe. China’s global scanner distribution poses potential national security risks at global seaports, airports, and border crossings.
[…]
China’s provision of customs inspection equipment is far-reaching: at least 65 low- and middle-income countries received this equipment financed via grants and loans from China between 2000 and 2022. The scanners can be found in locations ranging from Serbia and Albania in Eastern Europe, to Cambodia and Laos in Southeast Asia, to countries in Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, and the Pacific. Over the past two decades, China provided at least $1.67 billion (constant 2021 USD) of aid and credit for customs inspection activities in recipient countries.
[…]
Donations and zero-interest loans appear to be a deliberate business strategy of Chinese government entities to facilitate the acquisition, installation, and use of customs inspection equipment produced by Chinese companies. Of the 108 customs inspection equipment-related activities tracked, 89 (or 82.4%) constituted donations, with the remainder provided through loans from Chinese agencies for recipients to purchase scanners from China. 44 of these donations were financed directly by China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM).
[…]
Nuctech Company Ltd. (同方威视技术股份有限公司) is one of the key companies involved in the provision of global inspection equipment, ranging from cargo and vehicle inspection to personnel screening. Its competitors include U.S.-based companies such as Rapiscan Systems, L3Harris Technologies, and Leidos, as well as European-based companies like Smiths Detection and Thales Group, among others.
Nuctech is a partially state-owned company that emerged from Tsinghua University in the 1990s. Its parent company is Tsinghua Tongfang (清华同方股份有限公司), a state-owned enterprise. China National Nuclear Corporation (中国核工业集团公司), an energy and defense conglomerate controlled by China’s State Council, is the controlling stakeholder of Tsinghua Tongfang and holds a 21 percent ownership stake in Nuctech. Nuctech is further connected to the state, as the company’s former chairman in the early 2000s now serves in the central government.
[…]
If the rumours are that intelligence agencies have codes embedded in scannable objects that cause their country’s scanners to wave the baggage containing the code through are true, perhaps one should run the US, EU and Chinese scanners in series for maximum security.