London: The US has asked its diplomats not to keep classified information on 16,000 newly purchased computers, as their manufacturer was partly owned by the Chinese government.
According to The Telegraph, the Chinese government has a 28 percent stake in Lenovo, the world's third biggest personal computer maker, which has supplied nearly 900 of the computers to the US to be to be used by diplomats at embassies around the world.
Congressmen have raised questions that the systems could have jeopardised national security as they could have been used to access classified material.
Frank Wolf, a Republican Congressman, termed the purchase as a mistake and said, "This decision would have had dire consequences for our national security".
"It is no secret that the United States is a principal target of Chinese intelligence services," he said.
Apprehensions have been raised that the computers could have some sort of electronic eavesdropping mechanism that installed in them.
Assistant Secretary of State, Richard Griffin has however, assuaged the Congress that the administration would ensure that the machines did not "compromise US’s information and communication channels".
The State Department has said that all systems that were procured would undergo "inspection and verification", and those that had been installed had already been removed.
It further said that in future, it would track the ownership of the computer manufacturers.
On the other hand, company officials have vehemently denied there was any risk in using their machines.
"We are absolutely confident in the security of our manufacturing process. These computers do not present a risk to US security," said Jeffrey Carlisle.
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