Two senior Trump administration officials have alleged that China’s state-owned shipping giant COSCO reportedly uses concealed equipment aboard its vessels to collect military communications near the coastlines of target countries, including the United States.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the US assessment of the Chinese programme, said COSCO has maintained a decades-long intelligence-collection partnership with Beijing. The arrangement allows China to collect communication signals from vessels and aircraft operating across Europe , North America and Asia, according to an exclusive Reuters report. One of the officials said the advanced equipment aboard the ships is designed to gather information about “military communications technologies and encryption developments. The effort also allows Beijing to monitor key shipping lanes and maritime routes that are important for both global trade and military navigation, the official said as quoted by Reuters. The information collected is used by Beijing to strengthen its position in territorial disputes, while also providing maritime reconnaissance and early-warning indications of foreign military targets, according to the officials. COSCO did not respond to a request for comment, while China’s embassy in Washington rejected the US claims, according to the report.
A report published by the US Naval War College in April 2025 said it was likely that China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was harnessing the country’s fishing and commercial shipping fleets for intelligence and surveillance gathering.
China’s embassy said the Chinese government would never ask any company or individual to “collect or provide data, information or intelligence located abroad against local laws.
