COSCO Cargo Ships Used for Decades-Long Signals Intelligence Collection Against North America and Europe

Two senior Trump administration officials, speaking anonymously to Reuters, said China's state-owned shipping giant COSCO uses concealed equipment aboard its vessels to collect signals intelligence for Beijing, a partnership the officials described as decades old 1. The officials said the arrangement lets China gather communication signals from vessels and aircraft across Europe, North America, and Asia, with a priority on "military communications technologies and encryption developments," using the intelligence to bolster China's position in territorial disputes, aid maritime reconnaissance, and provide early-warning of foreign military targets, while also enabling monitoring of key shipping lanes and maritime routes 2. China's embassy in Washington, through spokesperson Liu Chang, denied the claims, saying the government would never require a company to "collect or provide data, information or intelligence located abroad against local laws" and calling the intelligence-collection narrative "totally baseless" 2. The Pentagon added COSCO to its list of companies linked to China's military in January 2025, a designation carrying procurement bans but no formal sanctions; the officials did not specify the equipment involved beyond calling it "sophisticated signals intelligence collection" hardware 23.