Beijing allegedly offered in 2017 to spend $100m to build an ornate Chinese garden at the National Arboretum in Washington DC. Photo / Getty Images
Beijing allegedly offered in 2017 to spend $100m to build an ornate Chinese garden at the National Arboretum in Washington DC. Photo / Getty Images
China wanted to build a 21m pagoda on a hill close to the US Capitol in Washington DC but was stopped amid fears the "perfect spot" could be used to spy on the US government, according to leaked FBI documents.
Beijing had also reportedly been attempting to snoop on US military and government facilities using the cover of Huawei installations, according to CNN, which first published the story.
FBI investigators said they have seen a "dramatic escalation" of Chinese espionage on US soil over the past few years and claim technology from the Shenzhen-based company Huawei poses a risk to US national security.
Among the details to emerge from the counterintelligence, report was that Beijing allegedly offered in 2017 to spend US$100 million ($159 million) to build an ornate Chinese garden at the National Arboretum in Washington DC, complete with temples, pavilions and a 21m white pagoda.
But US counterintelligence officials stopped the project after noting that the pagoda would have been strategically placed on one of the highest points in DC, just two miles from the US Capitol – "a perfect spot for signals intelligence collection".
Flags were also raised when the Chinese officials said they wanted to build it with materials shipped to the US in diplomatic pouches, which US Customs officials are barred from examining, the FBI noted.
In its investigation, which dates back to at least 2017, the FBI also warned of the risk posed by Chinese-made Huawei equipment atop cell towers near US military bases in the rural Midwest.
The Biden administration has launched an investigation into Huawei products' ability to transmit private or sensitive materials back to Chinese servers. Photo / Getty Images
It was revealed on Saturday that the Biden administration is investigating the Chinese telecoms equipment maker over concerns US cell towers fitted with its gear could capture sensitive information from military bases and missile silos that the company could then transmit to Beijing.
According to multiple sources familiar with the matter, the agency determined the equipment was capable of capturing and disrupting highly restricted US Defence Department communications, including those used by US Strategic Command, which oversees the US's nuclear weapons.
"This gets into some of the most sensitive things we do," said one former FBI official with knowledge of the investigation. "It would impact our ability for essentially command and control with the nuclear triad. If it is possible for that to be disrupted, then that is a very bad day."
Huawei, one of the largest computer manufacturers in the world, is a Chinese business registered under the supervision of the Chinese Communist Party.
Both the Chinese government and Huawei denied the allegations and the latter said its equipment is not capable of operating in any communications spectrum allocated to the US Defence Department.
The Chinese embassy in Washington did not respond to the specific allegations. In an emailed statement, it said: "The US government abuses the concept of national security and state power to go all out to suppress Huawei and other Chinese telecommunications companies without providing any solid proof that they constitute a security threat to the US and other countries."
The previously unreported US probe was opened by the US Commerce Department shortly after Joe Biden took office.
They subpoenaed Huawei in April 2021 to learn the company's policy on sharing data with foreign parties that its equipment could capture from cell phones, including messages and geolocational data, according to the 10-page document seen by Reuters.
A year earlier, Congress approved US$1.9 billion ($3bn) to remove Huawei and ZTE cellular technology across wide swaths of the US, but none of that equipment has yet been removed and rural telecom companies are still waiting for federal reimbursement money.
The US telecoms regulator, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) could ban all US transactions with Huawei, demanding US telecoms carriers that still rely on its gear quickly remove it, or face fines or other penalties.
FBI Director Christopher Wray has just travelled to London for a joint meeting with top British law enforcement officials to call attention to the Chinese threats.
"We're concerned about allowing any company that is beholden to a nation-state that doesn't adhere to and share our values, giving that company the ability to burrow into our telecommunications infrastructure."
