House GOP Urges International Port Operators to Halt ‘Alarming’ Partnership with Chinese Shipping Platform

A House Republican is warning an international body that represents port authorities and operators across the globe that they are facilitating the Chinese Communist Party’s drive for global dominance by partnering with a Chinese government-run shipping-data platform, National Review has exclusively learned.

In a letter today, obtained by NR, Representative Michelle Steel urged the body, called the International Port Community Systems Association, to drop the partnership, alleging that the logistics platform is “controlled” by the Chinese Communist Party. She also introduced legislation that would require the Department of Transportation and U.S. Customs and Border Protection to create an alternative to the Chinese government-run platform, which is called LOGINK.

“For 16 years, the Chinese Communist Party has used LOGINK as an inside informant on the movements and cargo of commercial ships and the holes in our supply chain in order to gain a competitive foothold in global trade,” Steel told NR in a statement. The California lawmaker is a member of the House Select Committee on Strategic Competition with the Chinese Communist Party and has previously introduced legislation to address LOGINK’s growing prevalence among port operators.

Concerns about China’s tightening hold on international logistics grew last year with the publication of a U.S. government report that found that the Chinese logistics platform has been adopted by over 20 ports around the world. In the report, the U.S.–China Economic and Security Review Commission outlined LOGINK’s origins, as a project of China’s Zhejiang province, which still operates the data-sharing platform.

Steel cited IPCSA’s partnerships with LOGINK, which stretch back to 2017, and included its integration into a secure supply-chains communications system for the association’s members. IPCSA’s members include dozens of air and sea-port operators across the world, including the Port of Los Angeles.

A representative for IPCSA responded to NR after publication, saying that the group’s executive committee will review the letter at a meeting on November 9 and respond to Steel.

“It’s alarming that you would work with LOGINK to ‘develop innovative IT solutions for trade facilitation and cooperation on technical issues’ as you described when your organization announced its partnership in 2017,” Steel wrote.

“The expansion of LOGINK, if left unchecked, could give the CCP a roadmap to gain a stranglehold on the arteries of global trade, a key aim of their Belt-and Road Initiative (BRI). With the data that a global LOGINK system could provide, the CCP could efficiently identify vital transportation nodes necessary to control the physical movement of goods,” she added.

Notably, the group holds consultative status in other international organizations and standard-setting bodies, including the U.N.’s Economic and Social Council and the International Maritime Association. This raises the possibility that LOGINK could be adopted more widely, beyond the IPCSA, among the members of international bodies.

Steel wrote that she’s concerned that LOGINK’s growing use compromises the commercial and military interests of the U.S. and its allies, specifically citing Japan and South Korea. “Unfortunately, the CCP currently has the ability to exploit their control over LOGINK and gain valuable intelligence regarding supply chains impacting and manipulating international trade as well as risking the U.S. Department of Defense’ use of commercial transportation and military logistics,” she wrote.

She also noted that she is working to ban the use of LOGINK by U.S. military and commercial ports, the focus of a provision in this year’s national-defense-authorization bill.

The bill that she introduced today directs CBP and the Transportation Department to partner with international organizations, including the IMO and the European Commission, to develop an alternative to LOGINK.

That legislation is intended to force the executive branch to take action on LOGINK. Steel and Senator Tom Cotton sent a letter to President Biden last year, asking him to address the matter, but Steel’s office said that they never received a response.