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China Hack EXPOSED: Is America's Tech at RISK?
Jul 25, 2025
Why is the US outsourcing tech jobs to China, risking critical infrastructure? An expert exposes the dangers, revealing how China exploits vulnerabilities and pre-positions itself in key US systems. Can America win the AI race without compromising security? ‘We have to do a better job.’ #cybersecurity #China #security #geopolitics #espionage
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0:00
We're joined by Patrick Cronin,
0:01
Asia-Pacific Security Chair at the
0:03
Hudson Institute. Patrick, welcome. So,
0:05
these were Microsoft employees based in
0:08
China who were being overseen by people
0:11
here in the United States. Uh, Patrick,
0:13
how did this happen? And and what does
0:15
it say about our security capabilities
0:17
here in the United States?
0:20
Well, it says when you're building
0:21
rapidly a digital system and a set of
0:24
systems, including just for the defense,
0:26
the Pentagon, Defense Department has
0:28
three main employees. When you're
0:29
building those kind of systems rapidly,
0:31
you're relying on a lot of different
0:33
workers and a lot of different
0:34
technologies that you may not understand
0:36
fully what's going into them. In this
0:38
case, yeah, outsourcing to Chinese tech
0:41
workers uh was the wrong thing to do for
0:44
our defense department system. Never
0:45
should have happened. Um and yet uh
0:48
because the United States has to rely
0:50
very heavily on our commercial
0:52
suppliers. Uh Microsoft is a great
0:54
corporation, a great company, but like
0:56
other commercial enterprises, they rely
0:58
heavily on an international workforce
1:00
and uh and that includes Chinese tech
1:02
workers. We do not have enough trained
1:05
tech professionals and regional
1:07
professionals to fully staff uh some of
1:10
the universities, some of the
1:11
governmental programs we need. We need
1:13
to do a better job at training and
1:15
educating and ensuring that the
1:17
requirements rule out allowing China to
1:20
be the workers who are working on the
1:22
these systems or the technology
1:24
providing the technology that goes into
1:26
those systems.
1:27
Um we just heard Secretary Hegsth say no
1:30
more Chinese involvement in cloud
1:31
systems and then uh Caitlyn mentioned in
1:33
her reporting cyber security mindset
1:35
needs to shift. How much do you think
1:37
our security systems are still at risk
1:40
today?
1:42
Well, they're very much at risk. The
1:43
Chinese are also getting better at this,
1:45
unfortunately. So, in the past, they
1:47
didn't mind being found out, but now
1:49
with their salt and vault typhoon
1:52
programs to try to preposition
1:54
themselves into our critical uh
1:56
utilities, or whether these new linen
1:59
and violet typhoon programs that are
2:00
trying to steal espionage um and
2:04
information on targets and on people and
2:06
information, we're going to continue to
2:08
find these in future systems as well,
2:10
not because of this contractor problem,
2:13
but because they're able to exploit
2:14
software. ware because they're able to
2:16
hack into different systems. They're
2:18
able to exploit individuals and um this
2:21
is part of the geostrategic competition
2:24
with China. We have to do a better job.
2:26
I would remind you that um Secretary of
2:28
Defense James Mattis um in producing the
2:33
2018 Defense Department's cloud strategy
2:37
was quoted widely as saying that if we
2:39
fail to adapt at the speed of relevance,
2:42
we'll forfeit the advantages we had to
2:44
win World War II. It's that mentality
2:46
that we're running right now in the
2:48
artificial intelligence race with China.
2:50
And when you're running that fast with
2:51
new technologies, you're accepting
2:53
certain amounts of risk. And that means
2:56
everything we do today, everything we
2:57
buy, everybody we train, we're also
2:59
accepting a certain degree of risk
3:01
because we're trying to achieve certain
3:02
milestones of achieve of capacity uh
3:05
right now and sooner than the Chinese.
3:07
We don't want to be surprised by China
3:09
when they can uh suddenly in de- enrypt
3:12
our our secret messages or when they can
3:14
hack into our sensitive communication.
3:16
So there's a there's a balance between
3:19
accepting some risk but then constantly
3:21
being actively trying to find out where
3:25
those risks exist. So this will not be
3:26
the last time Secretary Hegsath probably
3:28
has to go on uh around the world and and
3:31
say we're going to crack down on this uh
3:33
espionage because Chinese are relentless
3:36
on this.
3:36
Yeah. We know the Chinese but are there
3:39
other countries or bad actors uh that
3:41
you're keeping an eye on?
3:43
Well, yes. the whole crink axis of
3:45
upheaval, if you will, in terms of
3:47
China, Russia, Iran, North Korea,
3:49
they're the they're the most likely bad
3:51
actors. All of them are involved in
3:52
these issues. North Korea specializes in
3:55
trying to raise illicit funds so they
3:57
can fund their weapons of mass
3:59
destruction. Russia likes to disrupt
4:01
these programs uh broadly. Um and Iran
4:05
as well is trying to find intelligence
4:08
uh on anything related to the Middle
4:09
East. So all of them are problems, but
4:12
China has the biggest growing capacity
4:14
that we have to be concerned about.
4:16
All right, Patrick Cronin with the
4:18
Hudson Institute. Thank you so much for
4:20
your expertise on this and for joining
4:21
us this evening.
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