“Rogue” Devices Found Hidden In Chinese
Solar Panels Could “Destroy The Grid”
Modernity News,
by
Steve Watson
Original Article
Posted By: NHChemist,
5/16/2025 8:38:33 AM
Undisclosed communication devices reportedly discovered in Chinese-manufactured solar panels and related equipment have sparked concerns among U.S. officials about the vulnerability of the nation’s power grid, according to a Reuters report. These “rogue” devices, found over the past nine months, could potentially destabilize energy infrastructure and trigger widespread blackouts, sources familiar with the matter told the outlet. The undocumented devices, including cellular radios, were identified in solar power inverters, batteries, electric vehicle chargers, and heat pumps produced by several Chinese suppliers.
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Reply 1 - Posted by:
Venturer 5/16/2025 8:44:31 AM (No. 1950707)
First we have to decide whether or not we believe this.
If we decide to believe it what other things do we get from China and what is hidden in them.
If this is possible then everything with a printed circuit board in it is vulnerable.
41 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
JrSample 5/16/2025 9:04:39 AM (No. 1950718)
Red China is not a normal country. They are not a ''friend'' or a ''trading partner''. They are pure unadulterated evil. In a normal country the scientists, doctors, and biologists work to cure existing diseases. In Red China they invent new deadly diseases and then through incompetence and malfeasance [or vindictiveness] they inflict them on the world killing millions of people, killing even their own people. Then, the party lies, obfuscates, and blames everyone else. It is possible that the democrats who were pushing this green nonsense and those on the CCP payroll [ex. Biden and his idiot dopehead son] knew about it and were complicit in the plot. They admire the communists' ability to control populations through surveillance, social engineering, and violence. They are envious that they have been unable to implement these measures here.
55 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
red1066 5/16/2025 9:08:02 AM (No. 1950723)
Practice run for China Spain?
13 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
greyseal 5/16/2025 9:21:14 AM (No. 1950727)
It wouldn't surprise me to learn that they would force their factories making American designs to include some features to either spy on us or sabotage our infrastructure by self-destructing. I've disassembled enough electronic gear to understand how easy it would be to hide a "rogue" circuit on a PC board. And given the laxity and greed of today's corporations, I expect that they only inspect a representative sample of the electronic products coming out of Chinese factories.
I saw that Duke Power had to pull a number of Chinese-made inverters out of service here in NC around our military bases because they might have included adulterated circuits...
greyseal
44 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
planetgeo 5/16/2025 9:31:24 AM (No. 1950732)
Luckily there's a very simple solution...don't buy ANYTHING made in China? Not just strategic products, I literally mean anything. How do you know what's really in the pharmaceuticals you buy? Your dog and cat food? iPhones? Etc. Etc.
Demand to know where your products are coming from, and pointedly let Costco, Walmart, etc., know that you won't buy it if it is coming from China.
39 people like this.
What if the Democrat Party had been given four more years to cement America's dependence on Communist Chinese "green" infrastructure and raw materials? We really dodged a bullet.
38 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
wilarrbie 5/16/2025 9:55:48 AM (No. 1950742)
Looking askance at that Quatar airplane.
24 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
chance_232 5/16/2025 10:00:55 AM (No. 1950747)
Once upon a time I owned a room full of Chinese manufactured devices. I discovered inside an electronic component that made no sense and it was later identified as a military grade skimmer. Once removed, my machines increased output by 20%. What I learned is that the Chinese are skimming 20% from bitcoin miners.
We buy Chinese electronics at our peril. I would only purchase US manufactured electronics, if it was an option.
34 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
DVC 5/16/2025 10:09:36 AM (No. 1950752)
Buying ANYTHING from China is a stupid, stupid move. The entire country is an espionage and intellectual property theft ring.
32 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
DVC 5/16/2025 10:22:18 AM (No. 1950758)
Buying anything electronic from China is taking a substantial risk that it is an espionage or sabotage rigged device.
16 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
Jesuslover54 5/16/2025 10:44:11 AM (No. 1950767)
Color me acting surprised.
11 people like this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
Highlander 5/16/2025 10:52:17 AM (No. 1950770)
Scrap all that Chinese crap! Problem solved!
17 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
Alecto2 5/16/2025 10:57:04 AM (No. 1950773)
Do we really think the grid needs any outside assistance in achieving FUBAR?
8 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
JHHolliday 5/16/2025 11:01:59 AM (No. 1950775)
I would mandate that all online sellers plainly state where their product originated so you don't have to wait to see who made it. Big letters so we can decide before we buy. I have noticed lately that a lot of stuff comes from Vietnam. I will never buy even a toothpick from Vietnam.
9 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
Ida Lou Pino 5/16/2025 11:14:29 AM (No. 1950779)
The leftist grifters should stick those solar panels where the sun don't shine!
Wouldn't that be appropriate justice?
9 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
Californian 5/16/2025 11:21:38 AM (No. 1950781)
Buying Chinese solar panels is dumb, not just because of them putting devices in them.
When I shopped for mine, there were 3 basic choices, American, Canadian, and Chinese.
The American and Canadian ones cost a bit more but also produced 50% more power per unit of space, had very long warranty, and performed better under varying temperature conditions. The difference between the American and Canadian was subtle and irrelevant to most people, both are top notch. Mine are American. Very happy with my not-Chinese purchase which performs exactly to spec and will last as long as I own this house.
The Chinese ones were about 15 years behind the American/Canadian ones for only 10% less.
13 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
Geoman 5/16/2025 12:40:22 PM (No. 1950822)
I wonder what might be hidden within a Qatari 747 "gifted" to the U.S. Qatar is no more a "friend" of the U.S. than China.
19 people like this.
Reply 18 - Posted by:
FLCracker 5/16/2025 12:44:46 PM (No. 1950825)
If you buy your vital weapons, equipment, supplies from your enemy, you are going to lose.
Ask the American Indians.
11 people like this.
Reply 19 - Posted by:
Ragman73 5/16/2025 12:52:53 PM (No. 1950828)
There is the Law of Substitution. If you can purchase a like item from any other county than China, then do it. "Saving" a few dollars buying Vizio or Hisense electronics vs Samsung, LG, Sony comes at a cost. As hard as it is to believe, both GM (Buick) and Ford (Lincoln) build some models in China. Check specific models and avoid a unit whose country of origin is China. Supporting the Chinese economy and/or military is about the last thing the American consumer should be doing.
15 people like this.
I am shocked, S-H-O-C-K-E-D! to learn this. About as shocked as Claude Raines' character in "Casablanca".
THESE ARE THE RED CHINESE WITH WHOM WE ARE DEALING! We should not be purchasing ANYTHING from them. It only funds their war against us and the embedded booby traps of various sorts in those items.
11 people like this.
Reply 21 - Posted by:
DVC 5/16/2025 1:50:06 PM (No. 1950852)
Re #17. The simple reality is that if there is a Qatar gift plane, it will have to be disassembled down to the bare skin, and all the wiring replaced because of the MASSIVE number of encrypted comms, secure datalinks, anti-aircraft missile jammers and detectors, and more that will be needed.
The only thing used would be the bare airframe, and frankly, there would be probably no time at all saved from starting with a used 787 versus a brand new 747. And very little cost savings, likely.
The 747 starts "naked" and they build in all the massive custom power consumers and antennae. The used aircraft has to be taken apart, all electronics and wiring removed.....a net loss.
I don't think this is going anywhere.
10 people like this.
Reply 22 - Posted by:
franco 5/16/2025 2:40:30 PM (No. 1950872)
A few years back (in PDJT's first term), a prominent Taiwanese manufacturer of server boards manufactured in China was informed by Bloomberg that Israeli intelligence had defected rogue parts connected to the LAN interface on some of its motherboards... and that the Israelis had quarantined the board and found the rogue part was attempting to communicate with Internet Protocol addresses belonging to China. Bloomberg was unable to get Israeli intelligence to go "on the record" and they eventually let the story die down, though they didn't retract it. I had a motherboard from the company and demanded, via e-mail correspondence, instructions on how to disable and remove the rogue part. I received a reply back from the company categorically denying the Bloomberg story. I'm not inclined to believe the denial, but it turns out my motherboard was from a vintage that was believed to precede the introduction of the rogue parts.
We might solve this problem, at least in part, by moving as much printed circuit board assembly out of China as possible. One related bit of advice I can give to people is to do diligence on the semiconductor device makeup of devices they buy. If any of the semiconductors come from companies founded and headquartered in China, such that the chips were *designed* in China, then avoid purchase and suspect that the chips contain "undocumented" features that are useful to the CCP... because they probably do.
8 people like this.
Reply 23 - Posted by:
preciosodrogas 5/16/2025 3:50:35 PM (No. 1950896)
This story seems to be handing around. Might be something to it. I wonder what all they make for our military? This, and they make some of our medicines. They are crawling all over us.
Why are we doing business with a known enemy. I know, for the cheap junk they produce, but now this, it's all suspect. Could are they putting ingredients our medicine? We have Chinese sourced parts and components being used our military. Are they programed to fail?
6 people like this.
Reply 24 - Posted by:
LC Chihuahua 5/16/2025 4:16:22 PM (No. 1950902)
Totally believable.
Think of a computer running Windows. It gets a security update and REBOOTS. In this case it will be the energy grid receiving an 'update'. There will be no real update, but it will shut down and never reboot. Or maybe there will be an update that leaves the grid unusable. They don't even to be hands on to accomplish this since everything has remote access.
4 people like this.
Reply 25 - Posted by:
FLCracker 5/16/2025 7:09:55 PM (No. 1950974)
#23, you do know that in the Army, you have to have permission from God to use USB any devices, especially thumb drives, or to install software from non-US countries (including Canada), and I don't think even God can give you permission to attach an Apple computer to the LAN?
#1, oh yeah, I believe it.
0 people like this.
Reply 26 - Posted by:
Strike3 5/17/2025 7:42:49 AM (No. 1951181)
If this is so evil, how do we justify the US Government tracking our cars through technology we can't easily turn off, gathering and storing every piece of data on social media and our Internet searches via Google, tracking and monitoring cell phone activity, firearms purchases, chemical purchases, banking transactions and spreading propaganda through taxpayer-funded media and Wikipedia, not to mention financing voluntary propaganda through the WaPo and NYT? Most major countries do it, China is just a little more obvious and sloppy.
5 people like this.
Congress has to stop allowing China to ship products here to be "packaged" for sale, and claim it is from the USA.
3 people like this.
Reply 28 - Posted by:
kangus 5/17/2025 11:47:39 AM (No. 1951342)
When you take the time to debunk the lies you find products that work as expected and those that create the lies, either competitors or users looking for attention (clicks). I work with cameras, two way radios, and drones, I have found devices (almost all of them) do communicate with the manufacture to check on updates, the devices that don't require manual updates. Most manufactures have pages of information about the process, not DJI, but most, you can stop any of them with a simple firewall. All manufactures regardless of country are doing this, it is called a service to the end user not requiring them to check for updates, updates that fix bug or security issues. Are there manufactures putting unidentified parts on PCB, yes, in an attempt to stop IP theft manufactures are placing programable arrays to make duplicating the device as costly as possible. In a perfect world this would not be necessary, we are not in a perfect word.
2 people like this.
Reply 29 - Posted by:
MickTurn 5/17/2025 2:10:29 PM (No. 1951416)
This same thing happened back in the late 90's when the Air Force banned use of thumb drives from China for the same reason. Imbedded software on the drives was sending all the drives data TO CHINA!
1 person likes this.
Reply 30 - Posted by:
FormerDem 5/17/2025 4:12:09 PM (No. 1951469)
I bought a water filter called Larq on kickstarter, supposed to measure all kinds things in the water that flows through the filter, but when I understood that step one is to hook it up to the Internet, I put it in the cupboard and left it there...
1 person likes this.
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