Pete Hegseth orders assessment after revelations Microsoft used Chinese language contractors to handle delicate cloud companies.
Printed On 28 Aug 2025
The USA has launched a assessment of Chinese language nationals’ involvement in managing delicate cloud companies for the US navy, Washington’s defence chief has stated.
US Secretary of Protection Pete Hegseth stated on Wednesday that he had ordered an audit of Microsoft’s use of Chinese language residents to assist handle delicate cloud companies to find out if any safety breaches had occurred.
“The usage of Chinese language nationals to service Division of Protection cloud environments – it’s over,” Hegseth stated in a video assertion.
“We’ve issued a proper letter of concern to Microsoft documenting this breach of belief, and we’re requiring a third-party audit of Microsoft’s digital escort programme, together with the code and the submissions by Chinese language nationals.”
“Did they put something within the code that we didn’t find out about? We’re going to discover out,” Hegseth added.
Hegseth stated he had additionally directed software program suppliers to determine and finish “any Chinese language involvement in DOD programs”.
Hegseth’s order comes after an investigative report by ProPublica in July documented Microsoft’s employment of contractors in China and different overseas international locations to keep up the Protection Division’s cloud programs along side US-based “digital escorts”.
Following the report, Microsoft introduced that it will not use China-based technicians to assist the navy.
Hegseth, who introduced a direct assessment of China’s involvement in cloud companies following the ProPublica report, stated excluding Chinese language nationals from delicate programs was “frequent sense”.
“We anticipate distributors doing enterprise with the Division of Protection to guard US nationwide safety forward of revenue maximisation,” he stated.