Defence & Security
Intelligence Collection, Beijing Rejects Claim
What happened
The allegation against one of the world's largest shipping companies shows how commercial logistics networks are becoming entangled with military intelligence and great-power rivalry. WASHINGTON-BEIJING | 1 September 2026 | CurrentPulse News Desk Senior US officials have accused China's state-owned shipping giant COSCO of using concealed equipment aboard commercial vessels to collect signals intelligence near the coastlines of target countries including the United States. China rejected the allegations as baseless, creating a fresh security dispute ahead of a planned meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. The officials told Reuters that the equipment was designed to collect information on military communications technologies and encryption and to monitor strategically important shipping lanes. They described the systems as sophisticated signals-intellige