Microsoft Bans Chinese Engineers from Pentagon Cloud Operations

Microsoft announced on Friday that it has revised its internal practices to stop engineers based in China from providing technical support to U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) cloud clients, according to CNBC.

The change comes in response to growing concerns about national security and cybersecurity threats posed by foreign-based personnel working on sensitive U.S. government cloud infrastructure.

The announcement follows a detailed report by ProPublica earlier this week revealing the extent of the Pentagon’s reliance on Chinese-based Microsoft engineers, particularly those supporting the company’s Azure cloud services.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Microsoft’s Chief Communications Officer Frank Shaw wrote: “In response to concerns raised earlier this week regarding foreign engineers under U.S. supervision, Microsoft has made changes to our support for U.S. government clients to ensure that no engineering teams based in China are providing technical support for the Department of Defense cloud or related services.”

In 2019, Microsoft secured a $10 billion cloud contract with the Pentagon, although it was canceled in 2021 following legal disputes. A year later, the DoD awarded a combined $9 billion in cloud contracts to Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Oracle.

According to ProPublica, Chinese Microsoft engineers working on Azure were under the supervision of U.S.-based "digital escorts", staff with lesser technical expertise tasked with overseeing foreign support teams. The report warned that this arrangement could expose the U.S. to cyber vulnerabilities, especially in light of rising geopolitical tensions with China.