No More China-Based Engineers on U.S. Defense Work, Says Microsoft

Microsoft has stopped assigning its China-based engineers to any Pentagon-related work. The decision comes just days after a report revealed that Chinese engineers were working on Microsoft cloud services used by the US Department of Defense. The story sparked criticism, especially over how those foreign workers were monitored.

Microsoft’s Frank X. Shaw confirmed the change in a post on X. He noted:

In response to concerns raised earlier this week about US-supervised foreign engineers, Microsoft has made changes to our support for US Government customers to assure that no China-based engineering teams are providing technical assistance for DoD Government cloud and related services. We remain committed to providing the most secure services possible to the US government, including working with our national security partners to evaluate and adjust our security protocols as needed.

Last week, ProPublica first reported that Microsoft relied on so-called “digital escorts,” US citizens with security clearance, to supervise these China-based teams. But many of those escorts reportedly lacked the right skills to actually vet or understand the engineering work.

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth criticized the entire setup, saying no foreign engineer, especially not from China, should have access to DoD systems. Microsoft didn’t say whether there was a security breach or if this was purely preventative. But moving forward, it claims only US-based engineers will work on defense-related cloud infrastructure.