Chinese medical devices pose a threat to US national security

In the current political environment, it is difficult to imagine important issues on which Republicans and Democrats can find common ground. Protecting citizens' safety from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will hopefully remain that issue.

In recent years, we have seen growing agreement among policymakers that the CCP is actively working against the security of the United States. Whether through coercive trade practices, espionage, military aggression, or technology theft, the CCP intends to undermine American strength.

President Donald Trump has correctly identified our nation's growing dependence on Chinese companies as a clear national security threat. In response, it has taken steps to rebuild our domestic industrial manufacturing bases. This is especially true in security-critical industries such as defense, nuclear development, pharmaceutical manufacturing, and data center infrastructure.

The Trump administration should now consider medical devices. This lesser-known threat to American privacy and security lurks inside our hospitals, healthcare facilities, and even the homes of everyday Americans. Used to treat patients, monitor their health, and inform medical decisions made by healthcare professionals, medical devices are critical tools used in the daily care of our most vulnerable members of society.

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It's no surprise, then, that medical devices made by Chinese companies not only have the potential to take advantage of that intimate access, but have already been shown to exploit those vulnerabilities to gain access to the personal and private data of American patients.

Earlier this month, it was reported that medical hardware from Shanghai-based United Imaging had been installed in some of the country's top research labs. In some cases, these laboratories were even funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Not only has a United Imaging device been used in a Chinese military hospital, but United Imaging has also worked with the state-run Chinese Academy of Sciences. And according to the FBI, the company allegedly bribed employees working at an NIH-funded lab to funnel non-public information about its research.

Earlier this year, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning about a patient monitor made by the Chinese company Contec, specifically drawing attention to a software backdoor in the device that, once connected to the Internet, “begins to collect patient data, including personally identifiable information (PII) and protected health information (PHI), and to exfiltrate (remove) the data out of the environment. provision of medical care.”

The Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) followed with its own report, saying the backdoor allowed remote actors to engage in “remote code execution and modification of devices with the ability to alter their configuration.”

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Far from being an idle threat, CISA explained that this vulnerability in a machine that monitors and displays critical information such as electrocardiograms and blood pressure could have life-or-death consequences: “This introduces a risk to patient safety, as a malfunction of the monitor could lead to inappropriate responses to the vital signs displayed by the device.”

Medical devices made by Chinese companies have quietly arrived at many US hospitals and clinics, bringing with them hidden risks waiting to be abused by the CCP.

First, patient privacy is compromised when unknown actors can access and divert the most sensitive and confidential data of every patient in the United States, undermining the very foundation of trust in our healthcare system.

Coupled with the fact that Chinese law requires Chinese companies to cooperate and share information with the CCP and that China values ​​big data and is collecting information on individuals around the world, we can be confident that any private information collected on American patients is not in our national interest.

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Second, we cannot trust that information diversion will not turn into more serious tactics that put patients' lives at risk. Remote access to medical devices could cause real-world harm to patients if those devices were reconfigured to display false information that then led to unnecessary and harmful medical interventions.

Third, the American healthcare system is becoming too dependent on Chinese companies to run our hospitals. It doesn't take much of a leap to think about what would happen if the PCC decided to cut off the supply of medical devices. Like minerals, energy or critical military equipment, relying on Chinese companies for medical devices is a clear threat to American security.

What these threats mean is that the United States can no longer blindly outsource medical devices (some of our most vital and sensitive equipment) to companies that operate at the behest of adversary foreign governments like the CCP. It is critical that the United States have a domestic supply chain for medical devices.

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Now is the time for policymakers at both the federal and state levels to take this threat seriously and take meaningful steps to reduce the risks posed by these medical devices.

Protecting Americans from threats to their health and safety should be an easy, bipartisan victory.

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