10/21/2022
Mexico – As the Biden administration revamped security technology at the U.S.-Mexico border this year, officials learned of an unexpected national security threat developing on the other side of the Rio Grande. The Mexican government was preparing to purchase hundreds of millions of dollars of Chinese scanning equipment for its own checkpoints.
U.S. officials worried that the scanners, which Mexico had begun to purchase from Beijing-based Nuctech, would give China access to troves of information about goods entering the United States. The company, which manufactures equipment to screen luggage and cargo, has strong ties to China’s communist government.
In May, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico wrote a letter to Mexico’s foreign minister urging the country not to pursue the technology.
“No Chinese scanning equipment meets the United States’ standards for quality control,” Ambassador Ken Salazar wrote to Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard.
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Salazar said the equipment “is not considered reliable in regard to data integrity and transmission.” He warned it “could inhibit our shared commitment to facilitate commerce” and “our efforts to interrupt traffic of chemical precursors, synthetic drugs such as fentanyl, methamphetamines and cash, as well as firearms and ordnance.”
Mexican officials say they are aware of the U.S. unease and see value in using equipment that is compatible with technology used in the United States, but they are following their own country’s procurement procedures.
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