The Washington Times carries a story noting that the US State Department has canceled its installation of about 16,000 personal computers made by Chinese company Lenovo (formerly IBM’s PC division). The State Department had already installed about 900 of the PCs on its secure network in Washington, and at embassies around the world.
The move follows strong objections from the bi-partisan U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission. It has significant implications for agencies and companies in the national security sector.
Rep. Randy Wolf [R-VA] reportedly told the House appropriations subcommittee that:
“The State Department… has now taken the appropriate steps to ensure that classified information is not compromised by the purchase of these new computers… It has identified the machines that have already been installed and will remove them [and] it is making changes to ensure that its procurement process keeps up with the changes of ownership of IT companies.”
For its part, Lenovo replied that the PCs had all been manufactured in North Carolina and Mexico in factories acquired through its $1.75 billion purchase of IBM’s PC division (and the rights to continue labeling its products with IBM, ThinkPad et. al.) in 2005. Nevertheless, China’s political/economic system of corporatist totalitarianism, and the priority it places on espionage targeted at the USA, create obvious question marks around Chinese companies.
No overt ban has been implemented here. Nevertheless, other security-related US government departments, and those who deal extensively with them, are likely to adjust their behaviour accordingly in order to avoid this kind of scrutiny or publicity. Lenovo is currently the USA’s 3rd largest PC vendor, after Dell and HP.