Steve Sydow: We must work to stop China’s access to the Pentagon

Published 12:00 am Thursday, July 31, 2025

I couldn’t believe what I heard on Fox News — the Department of Defense has been letting Chinese software engineers into our military’s digital systems since the Obama administration. 

And the only safeguard monitoring the activity in real time is a much less experienced American counterpart copying and pasting the commands into the computer for them.

You read that right. Microsoft’s tech support for the Pentagon is based in China, thanks to a hush-hush program, according to explosive new reports from ProPublica and Fox News.

Here’s the scheme: Microsoft employs over 9,000 people in China, most of them software engineers. When the Pentagon needs tech support for its cloud systems, Chinese engineers can work on it — as long as they’re supervised by an American “digital escort” with security clearance. These escorts, often with limited coding experience, watch the Chinese engineers work and input their commands into our defense systems.

One current escort employed to monitor these Chinese engineers admitted to a reporter: “We’re trusting that what they’re doing isn’t malicious, but we really can’t tell.”

A former top CIA official said this arrangement is something he “would love to have had access” to as a spy. Think about that. We’ve created a system so vulnerable that our own intelligence officials are jealous of the opportunity it presents to foreign adversaries.

The math here is simple. Microsoft could have hired American workers to maintain our military systems. But that would cost more. So, instead, they created this “escort system”— a security theater that puts our national defense at risk to protect their profit margins.

President Donald Trump understands this threat better than anyone. In his recent interview with Sean Hannity, he cut right to the heart of it: “They make your telephones, and they make your computers and they make a lot of other things. Isn’t that a bigger threat?” 

He’s absolutely right. While everyone’s focused on TikTok, the real danger is hiding in the systems our military depends on every day.

I run a small electrical contracting business. If I hired unqualified workers to supervise critical infrastructure work, I’d lose my license. If those workers couldn’t tell the difference between safe wiring and a fire hazard, people could die. Yet Microsoft is doing essentially the same thing with our military’s digital infrastructure, and they’re getting away with it.

Last year, Chinese hackers stole 60,000 emails from senior U.S. officials, including our Commerce Secretary and ambassador to China. Did a Chinese-based Microsoft employee discover the vulnerability while performing maintenance on a Pentagon system? We may never know.

Scarier still, Microsoft continues doubling down on China. They’re bringing Microsoft Teams to the Chinese market. They’re expanding their AI research facilities there. They’re growing their Chinese workforce. All while maintaining their dominant control of U.S. government contracts.

This is exactly the kind of America Last policy that President Trump has been fighting against. While he’s working to protect American interests, companies like Microsoft are selling us out to China for a quick buck.

The Federal Trade Commission is investigating Microsoft’s practices, which is good. But we don’t need an investigation to learn what’s already been reported: our national security is actively being compromised. President Trump needs to hold responsible the Pentagon bureaucrats who let this happen and consider taking drastic action against Microsoft to lock down our systems and protect them from Chinese sabotage.

Microsoft wants to have it all —American defense contracts, cheap engineers, and Chinese market access. They can’t have all three. Not when China considers itself our primary adversary. Not when they’re actively trying to steal our military secrets. Not when the lives of American service members depend on these systems.

It’s time Microsoft chose a side. And if they won’t, President Trump will choose for them and we need Senator Moreno to have his back. Our national security isn’t worth sacrificing for any company’s bottom line.

Steve Sydow, of Ironton, is owner of SJS Electric.