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Chinese shipping cranes<\/a> are fast becoming the latest item to get caught up in Washington and Beijing\u2019s fractious relationship. U.S. officials have been talking<\/a> about the security threat posed by Chinese-made cranes at U.S. ports for months. Then, last month, the U.S. announced<\/a> an initiative to bolster cybersecurity at the country\u2019s ports.<\/p>\n Now, the company at the heart of the controversy\u2014China\u2019s Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries, also known as ZPMC\u2014is denying that it poses a security threat. ZPMC said it \u201cstrictly adheres to laws and regulations of relevant countries and regions,\u201d in a statement<\/a> released on Sunday.<\/p>\n ZPMC accounts for over 70% of the global market in shipping cranes. There are over 200 Chinese-made cranes at U.S. ports, accounting for \u201cnearly 80%\u201d of the total, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. <\/p>\n These cranes help move goods through maritime ports. The cranes can often be controlled remotely, which U.S. officials fear could be an avenue for hackers to disrupt the economy. A recent congressional probe claimed to find over a dozen cellular modems on cranes that could be remotely accessed, the Wall Street Journal<\/a> <\/em>reports. <\/p>\n ZPMC, in Sunday\u2019s statement<\/a>, said that recent reports \u201ccan easily mislead the public without sufficient factual review.\u201d<\/p>\n In late February, the Biden administration enacted an executive order to give officials more authority to improve cybersecurity at U.S. ports. It also allotted $20 billion in funds, drawn from money apportioned under the bipartisan infrastructure law and Inflation Reduction Act, to improve port infrastructure. <\/p>\n The money will also be used to encourage domestic production of cranes from the U.S. subsidiary of Japanese firm Mitsui.<\/p>\n On Friday, the American Association of Port Authorities that it\u2019s found no known security breaches from Chinese-made cranes at U.S. ports, despite<\/a> \u201calarmist media reports.\u201d The association noted that cranes \u201ccan\u2019t track the origin, destination, or nature\u201d of cargo shipped in U.S. ports. <\/p>\n \u201cI like a good spy movie, but you need a smoking gun to make it a blockbuster, and there\u2019s no smoke in this story,\u201d Cary Davis, the AAPA\u2019s general counsel, said in Friday\u2019s statement<\/a>. Yet the association called on the U.S. to support local manufacturing of shipping cranes to balance out Chinese subsidies, which can make Chinese-made cranes 50% cheaper than their competition. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\nWhat is the Biden administration doing about cranes?<\/strong><\/h2>\n