On Wednesday, September 10, the leaders of both parties in two committees of the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter to the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, warning that allowing the Alibaba Group to participate in the infrastructure services of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics would pose a serious national security risk to the United States. At present, Alibaba is expected to be involved in the operation of the Los Angeles Olympics.
The letter was signed jointly by the Chairman of the Select Committee on the CCP, John Moolenaar, Chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, Andrew Garbarino, as well as the chief Democratic members of both committees, Raja Krishnamoorthi and Bennie Thompson, showing a unified stance on this issue between the two parties.
In the letter, the congressmen expressed shock at the continued cooperation between the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Alibaba Group.
“Alibaba is a core enabler of the Chinese Communist Party’s digital surveillance and censorship system,” the congressmen wrote in the letter. “The company appears to be cooperating with Chinese military enterprises in surveillance and weapon development, assisting Chinese intelligence agencies in data processing, and has established a CCP committee within the company.”
“If Alibaba were to have access to the infrastructure or sensitive data related to the Los Angeles Olympics, it would pose serious concerns for espionage activities, data misuse, and foreign influence operations,” they wrote.
The congressmen emphasized the strategic significance of Los Angeles due to its proximity to U.S. military facilities, defense contractors, critical infrastructure, and leading technology companies. Allowing a Chinese-controlled technology company to participate in Olympic operations would present an “unacceptable risk to U.S. national security.”
The letter referenced the experience of the 2024 Paris Olympics, where French cybersecurity authorities expressed concerns about Alibaba’s role. Guillaume Poupard, the head of the French National Cybersecurity Agency (ANSSI), confirmed that they had repeatedly requested the organizers to stop cooperating with Alibaba to prevent the Chinese authorities from accessing relevant data.
Ultimately, the French government required that all Olympic-related data must be stored within the country’s sovereign jurisdiction and mandated special protective measures for any systems involving Alibaba.
The letter also stressed that Alibaba’s involvement in previous Olympics through providing cloud infrastructure, e-commerce, ticketing, and broadcasting services had given them significant access to Olympic systems and personnel. With the increasing influence of the Chinese Communist Party on domestic companies and heightened geopolitical tensions surrounding key technological platforms, this risk is further exacerbated.
As a result, the congressmen requested that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) provide a classified briefing by September 30, including an assessment of the risks Alibaba might pose, risk notifications and mitigation measures for the IOC and key infrastructure operators, and potential methods to prevent or exclude Alibaba from accessing the infrastructure and sensitive information of the Los Angeles Olympics.
“The strategic intention of the Chinese Communist Party to exploit external data systems is evident. We believe that unless the U.S. government can ensure the implementation of robust, credible security controls (even though the feasibility of these measures remains uncertain), any supplier under Chinese control should not be given any operational role,” the congressmen wrote.
Epoch Times has reached out to Alibaba for comment and had not received a response as of the deadline.