Calling on Sen. Schumer’s Leadership To Help Halt Government Purchases from Chinese State-Owned IT Forms

Following Senator Schumer’s recent announcements about next-generation semiconductor research initiatives coming to Albany, China Tech Threat today issued a letter to Sen. Schumer requesting his support in determining what guardrails exist to prevent government purchases from Chinese state-owned manufacturers, particularly in New York State as the home to the world’s financial markets. 

The letter by China Tech Threat Co-Founder Dr. Roslyn Layton cites New York’s State’s purchase of more than $28 million in technology products and services by Chinese state-owned tech manufacturers Lenovo and Lexmark, which have ownership ties to the Chinese government and Chinese Communist Party. It was issued as New York plans to allocate $23.5 billion in federal American Rescue Plan funding, much of which will be used to upgrade its IT system, and the New York Office of General Services requests bids for a significant hardware technology purchase, which will likely be decided in the weeks ahead.

“As the home to the world’s financial markets and a diverse base of cutting-edge industries, New York is already a lucrative target for state-sponsored cyber-criminals—namely the Chinese military hackers—who are actively working to pilfer U.S.-made technology, government secrets and consumer data. As you seek to attract much of this job-creating investment to New York, I kindly request your support in determining what, if any, guardrails exist to prevent government purchases from Chinese state-owned manufacturers, whose products may contain built-in backdoors and other vulnerabilities,” Dr. Layton wrote. 

Sen. Schumer has been a national leader in efforts to expand our country’s leadership in competitiveness in next generation chip research and manufacturing and to boost funding to support these efforts. He recently announced that Intel Corp. and IBM will collaborate on next-generation semiconductor research in a new initiative to be based in Albany, NY.