To limit Chinese influence on commercial tech partners, Pentagon plans big changes
Working with startups promises big innovation gains—and big security risks—for the Defense Department.
Patrick Tucker | January 28, 2025 12:12 AM ET
Industry China Technology
New rules aimed at exposing foreign influence over companies the Pentagon does business with are at odds with Defense Department efforts to work with more startups, but there could be a way to do both—if the DOD changes the way it approaches risk, security experts say.
U.S. efforts to secure classified weapons information have worked so well that China is devoting more and more time to scouring unclassified information to gather intelligence on new potential capabilities, Matthew Redding, the assistant director for industrial security at the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency, said last week at a Potomac Officer’s Club event in Virginia.
“They're moving away from [searching for intelligence] behind the classified castle walls, which are very secure under the National Industrial Security Program. While the classified world is very secure, what about that unclassified storefront? What about that unclassified research outside of your classified research areas, right?” he said. His office will collect information on defense contractors in order to evaluate whether some issue related to foreign influence might prohibit that contractor from doing classified work.
The 2020 National Defense Authorization Act mandated a lot more vetting and scrutiny of defense contractors to detect possible Chinese influence. Any Defense Department contract over $5 million will be subject to increased vetting by Redding’s agency, once the policy is reviewed thoroughly.
https://www.defenseone.com/business/2025/01/limit-chinese-influence-commercial-tech-partners-pentagon-plans-big-changes/402542/?oref=d1-featured-river-secondary
