Metro made the right decision last month when it awarded Hitachi Rail the $1 billion contract to build the next generation of D.C. metro rail cars. WMATA had previously met with representatives of the Chinese Communist Party-owned and operated China Railway Rolling Stock Corporation, sending alarm bells ringing across Capitol Hill.
The Chinese government is one of the worst perpetrators of cyberespionage on the planet. Why would we allow rail cars built by a Chinese state-owned enterprise to operate in proximity to sensitive installations across the capital region and carry military personnel, federal employees, and elected officials to and from work every day?
CRRC had already secured contracts to build passenger rail cars for four major cities around the country. But Washington was a bridge too far, and it was clear that Congress needed to act.
In response, Rep. Harley Rouda of California and I helped pass a bipartisan bill to ban federal funds from being used to purchase rolling stock from Chinese state-owned or supported companies. The bill became law as part of the fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act with the enthusiastic support of many of my colleagues representing the D.C. region.
The logic behind our bill was simple: Taxpayer dollars should not be used to subsidize any company that has made clear its intent to eliminate jobs, displace U.S. manufacturers, and undermine our national security, whether that be in Washington or elsewhere.
Unfortunately, unelected bureaucrats are trying to bypass the will of Congress and give four cities a blanket exemption from this law to allow those cities to continue purchasing passenger rail cars from the Chinese government indefinitely. This is a bad idea.
As part of China’s Made in China 2025 initiative, a plan to dominate certain global industries unveiled by the Chinese Communist Party, we have seen Chinese state-owned enterprises such as CRRC leverage millions in Chinese government subsidies to underbid domestic U.S. competition at every turn for years.
This has allowed cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia to purchase rail cars built by the Chinese government, opening our national and economic security up to potentially crippling vulnerabilities.
The economic impacts of these efforts thus far are evident. According to one study by Oxford Economics, it was estimated that for every assembly job CRRC created here in the U.S., between three and five manufacturing jobs were lost elsewhere in the country.
But there is also a clear national security need. As two leading national security experts wrote last fall, “While the U.S. and our allies should be alarmed by the anti-competitive nature of CRRC … the cybersecurity threat this penetration of our market presents should be of equal concern.”
The Chinese Communist Party and military have long and demonstrated histories of orchestrating cyberattacks and engaging in cyberespionage here in the U.S., making the involvement of a state-owned enterprise in the manufacturing of domestic rolling stock alarming for policymakers. With today’s passenger rail cars carrying Wi-Fi systems, sophisticated communications equipment, security devices such as cameras and microphones, and the latest Internet of Things technology, there is no question that they could be a vulnerable target to cyberattack or hacking.
It was this very threat that left myself and my colleagues scratching our heads when the Federal Transit Administration released guidance on the law earlier this year that allows CRRC to continue selling to transit agencies if an existing contract is already in place. This exemption applies to these agencies in perpetuity.
Unless this loophole is fixed, the door will remain opened wide for Chinese SOEs and related firms to raid our tax dollars, displace domestic employment, and spy on us in our own capital as we go about our business.
My colleagues and I have made clear our stance on China’s predatory, government-backed competition when we passed this bill into law last fall. Now, it’s time for the FTA to follow suit.
Rick Crawford represents Arkansas’s 1st Congressional District.
