Hegseth Announces Chinese Nationals No Longer Service Pentagon’s Cloud Systems
Udumbara
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Trump administration has brought to an end Microsoft’s employment of Chinese nationals to write code for sensitive Pentagon cloud systems.
“We expect vendors dealing with the Department of Defense to put U.S. national security ahead of profit maximalization,” Hegseth said.
Under the program, Microsoft engaged Chinese nationals, remotely supervised by American “digital escort” contractors, to service DOD cloud environments despite the clear risks to national security.
Third Party Audit, DOD Investigation
The secretary said the DOD was taking two courses of action to address the risks that remain from the program in China.He said an independent third party will audit Microsoft’s China-based program, which will be “free of charge for U.S. taxpayers” and include all “code and the submissions by Chinese nationals.”
A parallel investigation will be run by DOD experts into the “digital escort” program and the Chinese nationals whom Microsoft employed.
“These investigations will help us determine the impact of this digital escort workaround. Did they put anything in the code that we didn’t know about? We’re going to find out,” Hegseth said.
He said that all DOD software providers will identify and terminate any Chinese involvement in the DOD system.
“It blows my mind that I’m even saying these things … that we ever allowed it to happen. That’s why we’re attacking it so hard,” he said.
Cotton, in his questioning, sought information on “all security classification guides provided to Microsoft or other contractors under the Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability (JWCC) program.”
Microsoft in China
The issue came to a head for Microsoft in 2024 when its president, Brad Smith, appeared before the House Homeland Security Committee to answer questions over reports that the company had asked about 700–800 employees, mostly engineers of Chinese nationality, to relocate out of China as it restructured operations to reduce its engineering presence in the country.The lawmakers had also questioned Smith about Microsoft’s ties with China’s ruling communist regime and its security “shortfalls” that allowed China-based hackers to breach the company’s systems in 2023.
“We accept responsibility for each and every finding in the CSRB report,” Smith acknowledged in his remarks.
The Epoch Times has reached out to the DOD for comment.
