The Trade "Superweapon" That Went Dark: China's LOGINK Platform Has Collapsed

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From Local Project to Global Ambition

LOGINK, officially the National Transportation and Logistics Public Information Platform, began about twenty years ago as a local project in China's Zhejiang province. Its goal was to put data from ports, trucks and shipping companies into one searchable system.

Beijing saw its potential and handed control to the national transport ministry. Going global quickly became the goal. In 2010, China linked the platform to national logistics systems in Japan and South Korea. Later agreements and memoranda of understanding (non-binding cooperation deals) reached ports in Europe, including Portugal's Sines and Rotterdam's Portbase.

The stakes were high. Ships carry roughly 80 percent of world trade, so whoever controls the data about those shipments gains a real strategic advantage.

Why Washington Sounded the Alarm

In September 2022, the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, an advisory body to Congress, published a detailed warning. It said that because the platform is state-controlled, the Chinese Communist Party could gain access to shipping information, cargo values, and routing details.

Researchers at Rice University's Baker Institute added a commercial concern. In their view, Beijing could pass insights from LOGINK to Chinese logistics firms, helping them undercut foreign competitors.

There was also a military worry. A great deal of defense cargo, including arms shipments to Ukraine and Taiwan, travels on ordinary commercial freight networks. US officials feared LOGINK could help identify such shipments.

Congress responded. A group of Republican lawmakers, including today's Secretary of State Marco Rubio, urged then-President Biden to act. Congress later barred the Pentagon from working with entities connected to LOGINK and told officials to discourage allies from using it. The US Maritime Administration also issued a security advisory on the platform.

A Sudden Retreat

Reuters, drawing on interviews with more than 20 industry insiders and officials plus court records, describes a rapid decline starting around 2024.

• International group: LOGINK left the International Port Community Systems Association (IPCSA) in 2024 after it stopped paying membership fees. The association says the data-sharing project it had run with LOGINK is now on hold and inactive.
• Japan and South Korea: China abruptly canceled a meeting planned for March 2024, citing "internal circumstances." No meetings have been held since. Japan told Reuters it lost access to the data more than a year ago and cannot reach its Chinese counterparts.
• Europe: Sines said its 2017 agreement produced no significant results. Portbase said its 2019 agreement never went beyond early talks.
• Online presence: LOGINK's website went dark around 2024. Reuters says calls and emails to the company went unanswered.

Lawsuits and Empty Offices

Problems are also piling up at home. Since January 2024, the company behind LOGINK's Wenzhou hub has faced at least 39 court claims worth about $1.3 million in total, according to corporate records cited by Reuters. They include labor disputes, apparent unpaid utility bills, and a contract dispute brought by a local China Mobile subsidiary. The industrial park's state-backed developer has also brought a lease dispute against it.

When a Reuters reporter visited the Wenzhou office in September, it looked deserted. Lights were off, the reception area was bare, and network cabling had been stripped out. A Communist Party slogan about leveraging global supply chains by 2035 was still on the wall.

Was the Threat Overstated?

Not everyone agreed with the alarm. Japan's transport ministry and South Korea's oceans ministry said they received only limited information, such as vessel arrival and departure times and loading data, not what was inside the cargo.

A LOGINK official told US trade authorities in 2024 that the platform could not collect sensitive commercial data or continuously monitor global cargo. China's embassy in Washington earlier accused the US of politicizing trade. Some analysts have also noted that concerns about LOGINK were never clearly backed by hard evidence, and that its low cost and easy interface made it attractive to many ports.

Even so, nobody outside the project has fully disclosed what data LOGINK actually collected.

Why It Went Dark Is Still Unknown

Reuters says it could not establish why the project collapsed. The timing, however, matches the period when the US was publicly pressuring partners and organizations to avoid it. Randall Schriver, who chairs the US commission that issued the 2022 report, credits Washington's "naming and shaming" with contributing to the setback.

A State Department spokesperson gave no details about diplomatic efforts but said the US will not allow a Beijing-controlled platform to gain a chokehold over global maritime data. Washington has banned its use in government and critical ports and urges allies to do the same.

Beijing has not given up on the idea. In June, China's transport ministry issued a policy paper calling for the system to be linked to more domestic data sources. The contest over who controls the digital infrastructure of global shipping is far from over.

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Sources

1. Reuters, "The US said China was priming a trade superweapon. Then it vanished" (Joe Cash and John Geddie, October 5, 2026): https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/us-said-china-was-priming-trade-superweapon-then-it-vanished-2026-10-05/
2. US-China Economic and Security Review Commission, "LOGINK: Risks from China's Promotion of a Global Logistics Management Platform" (September 2022): https://www.uscc.gov/research/logink-risks-chinas-promotion-global-logistics-management-platform
3. Voice of America, "US Bans Pentagon From Using Chinese Port Logistics Platform": https://www.voanews.com/a/us-bans-port-logistics-platform-china-offers-free-worldwide-/7408269.html
4. Janes, "US lawmakers raise security concerns about Chinese logistics system" (includes the Chinese embassy's response): https://www.janes.com/osint-insights/defence-news/us-lawmakers-raise-security-concerns-about-chinese-logistics-system
5. FreightWaves, "House passes defense bill with ban on Chinese shipping platform" (Baker Institute analysis): https://www.freightwaves.com/news/house-passes-defense-bill-with-ban-on-chinese-shipping-platform
6. gCaptain, "US Sounds Alarm on China's Leading Ship Logistics Software LOGINK" (MARAD advisory): https://gcaptain.com/u-s-sounds-alarm-on-chinas-ship-logistics-software-logink/
7. Nghien Cuu Bien Dong, "LOGINK: China's new tool for port influence" (skeptical counter-view): https://en.nghiencuubiendong.vn/logink-chinas-new-tool-for-port-influence.56637.anews

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