Is it true that the Chinese government could “flip the ‘killswitch’ on our electrical infrastructure at any time”?
No, it’s not true. More than one switch is involved. Daily Express quotes Arnie Bellini, former CEO of ConnectWise, who summarizes the problem: “Every transformer, crane, or camera built in China is a potential listening device or kill switch” (August 3, 2025).
U.S. buyers have been making it possible. “We’re implementing it ourselves. We’re opening up the gates and we’re rolling in the Trojan horse.”
In 2019…Dan Coats [director of national intelligence in the first Trump administration] put a 42-page-long report on the US intelligence community’s worldwide threat assessment. It stated, “China has the ability to launch cyber attacks that cause localized, temporary, disruptive effects on American critical infrastructure, such as the disruption of a natural gas pipeline for days to weeks in the United States.”
Since then, the United States has carried out a number of investigations on tech imported from China, and numerous reports detail the presence of ‘malicious, mysterious computer codes,’ that can be accessed remotely and used to shut down critical infrastructure, such as natural gas pipelines and electrical grids.
After publication of the Coats report, “numerous products have been recalled due to this concern,” Daily Express notes. But it’s an uphill battle.
Rogue components
In May, Reuters reported that although American utility companies use firewalls to prevent communication with China, “rogue communication devices not listed in product documents have been found in some Chinese solar power inverters by U.S experts who strip down equipment hooked up to grids to check for security issues” (May 15, 2025).
“The rogue components provide additional, undocumented communication channels that could allow firewalls to be circumvented remotely, with potentially catastrophic consequences….”
Mike Rogers, a former NSA director and a former commander with U.S. Cyber Command: “We know that China believes there is value in placing at least some elements of our core infrastructure at risk of destruction or disruption. I think that the Chinese are, in part, hoping that the widespread use of inverters limits the options that the West has to deal with the security issue.”
As another Reuters source puts it: “That effectively means there is a built-in way to physically destroy the grid,” remotely.
An unnamed Department of Energy spokesman sounds naive about the threat: “While this functionality may not have malicious intent, it is critical for those procuring to have a full understanding of the capabilities of the products received.” May not have malicious intent?
