Secure Technology Value Solutions is a company with a boring name and a bland website that is staffed by jovial-looking former policemen and corrections officers. It doesn’t exactly scream “Chinese Communist Party threat,” and that’s precisely the point.
Secure Technology Value Solutions is actually a front for Nuctech, a Chinese government- and military-owned company, and it’s selling sensitive security equipment to police and corrections departments all across the United States.
Nuctech sells devices such as the body scanners that passengers must use during airport security checks, as well as larger devices, such as cargo scanners for commercial ports.
It was an early adopter of a technique that’s become popular among Chinese companies that fall under national security scrutiny: Change the name of your American subsidiary to something that sounds benign and hope to fly under the radar.
Nuctech’s U.S. subsidiary changed its name to Secure Technology Value Solutions in 2022, after Nuctech was hit by several forms of national security sanctions.
Nuctech equipment was blocked from U.S. airports a decade ago by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration and sanctioned by the U.S. Commerce Department in 2020 on national security grounds.
Notably, the Commerce Department cited concern that Nuctech’s “lower-performing equipment means less stringent cargo screening, raising the risk of proliferation” of “nuclear and other radioactive materials.”
Doing business with Nuctech is essentially doing business with the Chinese Communist Party itself. Nuctech was spun out of Tsinghua University, an elite institution that works closely with the Chinese military. It was co-founded and led for years by the son of Hu Jintao, Xi Jinping’s predecessor as general secretary of the CCP.
According to Wirescreen, a business intelligence platform that provides data on Chinese companies, Nuctech is one-fourth government-owned, majority owned by a Chinese defense contractor, and is a supplier to China’s own security agencies.
Nuctech is a subsidiary of China National Nuclear Corp., a state-owned company that runs China’s civilian and military nuclear programs, and which has been identified by the U.S. as a Chinese military-industrial complex company.
In April of this year, another China National Nuclear Corp. subsidiary was sanctioned by the Treasury Department for proliferating weapons of mass destruction technology.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security assessed in 2020 that, among other concerns, “Nuctech’s screening and detection systems likely have deficiencies in detection capabilities, which may create opportunities for exploitation by the Chinese government. … [If] backdoors or deficiencies are present, remote access could be enabled to gain access of Nuctech systems and other networked infrastructure.”
The U.S. Department of Transportation has also repeatedly warned port operators about the threat of Nuctech equipment.
The threat is a global one, with the Homeland Security Department flagging “the alarming rate at which the security company continues to gain control over various strategic security infrastructure” in Europe—as much as 90% of Europe’s sea-cargo screening equipment market and 50% of the market for airport baggage and cargo screening.
In light of those concerns, the U.S. has pressed its allies to dump Nuctech.
European countries awarded more than 160 contracts to Nuctech over the past decade in spite of warnings, but finally show some signs of moving on from a “see no evil” attitude toward Nuctech’s takeover of the security screening market.
However, Europe’s action against Nuctech is part of an anti-dumping investigation, making it unclear whether and when Nuctech devices will be phased out of Europe’s critical infrastructure. Canada, likewise, had awarded several contracts to Nuctech, operating their devices “across Canada,” and in 2020 were poised to install Nuctech devices in Canadian embassies across the world until the U.S. intervened.
Despite the federal and international scrutiny, Nuctech and its Secure Technology Value Solutions front company have found plenty of localities and state governments willing to buy its devices using taxpayer dollars. Often, the customers are corrections and police departments, and Secure Technology’s top leadership consists of former corrections and police officers, no doubt to leverage their professional networks and trusted relationships.
Secure Technology’s website brags about a sale in Louisiana, and even features a video of its equipment appearing to be connected to the computer system of a jail. Arizona spent millions of dollars acquiring Nuctech equipment in 2023. Pennsylvania has maintained a contract with Nuctech since 2018, which was renewed in February. Virginia purchased Nuctech equipment in 2023. Nuctech devices also operate in Ohio. The list goes on.
It’s a safe bet that Americans don’t want a Chinese military-linked company providing security for sensitive sites or plugged into states’ computer networks and surveillance systems. States should stop doing business with Nuctech and Secure Technology, and advance policies to block CCP-controlled companies from participating in taxpayer-funded procurement.
Granting the CCP access to government infrastructure and troves of sensitive data—let alone paying it for the privilege—just doesn’t make sense.