America's critical infrastructure faces an unprecedented threat, and it's already installed in hundreds of locations across the nation.
Recent investigations confirm that Chinese-manufactured power transformers—essential components of our electrical grid—have been discovered with hidden capabilities allowing remote shutdown from overseas.
In summer 2019, federal authorities seized a massive 500,000-pound Chinese transformer at the Port of Houston. Rather than delivering it to its intended Colorado substation, officials diverted it under escort to Sandia National Laboratories for examination. What they discovered was alarming: backdoor hardware deliberately inserted that would allow operators in China to remotely disable the transformer.
This wasn't mere speculation. Latham Saddler, former Director of Intelligence Programs at the National Security Council, later confirmed that Sandia "found hardware that was put into [the transformer] that had the ability for somebody in China to switch it off."
Recognizing this existential threat to national security, the federal government declared a grid security emergency on May 1, 2020, signing Executive Order 13920 to ban acquisition of certain foreign power equipment. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette stated the order would "greatly diminish the ability of foreign adversaries to target our critical electric infrastructure."
However, on January 20, 2021—the very first day of the next administration—this protective measure was suspended. The ban on Chinese transformers was effectively lifted, with the administration later replacing the hardline approach with voluntary measures and supply chain reviews.
The consequences are concerning: at the moment of the initial executive order, approximately 300 Chinese-made transformers were already operating in America's power grid. Today, that number has surged to nearly 500.
These aren't ordinary components. Ultra-high-voltage transformers are the backbone of our electrical transmission system, and their compromise could lead to widespread blackouts affecting millions. With hundreds of potentially vulnerable Chinese units now embedded throughout our grid infrastructure, security experts warn we may have inadvertently installed the equivalent of sleeper cells in our most critical national systems.
The same is true for software components of IOT devices. Those are susceptible to phishing attacks.
As America's digital and physical infrastructure becomes increasingly interconnected, the quiet proliferation of these foreign-controlled components raises urgent questions about our national security priorities and supply chain vulnerabilities.
