Microsoft will suspend China-based technical support for the Pentagon System

Microsoft said Friday that after investigative news site Propublica revealed the practice earlier this week, it has confirmed that China-based personnel are not providing technical support to the U.S. Department of Defense systems.

Pentagon chief Pete Hegses confirmed that work on the Department of Defense’s cloud services was outsourced to the Chinese people, claiming the country “has nothing to do with” future systems.

“Microsoft makes changes to its support for its US government customers to ensure that the China-based engineering team is not providing technical assistance to the DOD government cloud and related services,” said Frank Shaw, the company’s chief communications officer, in a post from X.

Propublica reported Tuesday that the tech giant is using China-based engineers (Washington’s major military rivals) to maintain Pentagon computer systems, with limited oversight by US officials, who often lack the expertise needed to do their jobs effectively.

US Sen. Tom Cotton asked Hegses to look into the matter in a letter dated Thursday, and the Pentagon chief replied that he would.

Hegseth then posted a video on X Friday night, saying, “It turns out that some tech companies are using cheap Chinese labour to support DOD cloud services, which is clearly unacceptable, especially in today’s digital threat environment.”

“In my direction, the department will start… as fast as possible, two weeks of review, or faster.

“We will continue to monitor and counter all threats to military infrastructure and online networks,” he adds, thanking the media and “always Americans in the media and others can help us to capture our attention and address this issue.”

©2025 AFP