Fox News by Thomas Catenacci 1/29/2024
Ford Motor Company is planning to contract technology and software from at least four Chinese firms that supply similar services to the Chinese government and military, and the North Korean government, according to contracts obtained by Republican investigators.
The revelations — which were released Monday by Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., the chair of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, and Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash. — are part of the GOP's ongoing joint investigation into Ford's partnership with Fujian, China-based electric vehicle (EV) battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology (CATL).
According to the Republican leaders, they recently reviewed portions of Ford’s signed agreements with CATL. Those documents revealed the four Chinese firms in question "will be intimately involved" in the design, construction, and information technology processes for a proposed EV battery factory Ford is building in Marshall, Michigan, with services provided by CATL.
"It is indefensible for Ford to use the same cloud integration and data provider that is linked to North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs sanctions evasion activity," Gallagher and McMorris Rodgers wrote to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen last week.
"Before the Ford plant even comes online, its entire security system could be compromised by this software," they continued. "The same company that is actively supporting the PRC’s surveillance state will have the capability to embed backdoors, spyware, and other forms of malware within Ford’s [cloud service] infrastructure, compromising the confidentiality and integrity of Ford’s sensitive information and posing risk to American’s data privacy rights."
The lawmakers penned the letter to Yellen after reviewing the signed agreements between Ford and CATL. They requested that the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control investigate possible sanctions evasion activity conducted by the four firms which remain unidentified.
More:
https://news.yahoo.com/ford-plans-hire-chinese-military-211858831.html
