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Following a Pro Publica report<\/a> that Microsoft was using engineers in China to help maintain cloud computing systems for the U.S. Department of Defense, the company said it\u2019s made changes to ensure this will no longer happen.<\/p>\n The existing system reportedly relied on \u201cdigital escorts\u201d to supervise the China-based engineers. But according to Pro Publica, those escorts \u2014 U.S. citizens with security clearances \u2014 sometimes lacked the technical expertise to properly monitor the engineers.<\/p>\n In response to the report, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth wrote on X<\/a>, \u201cForeign engineers \u2014 from any country, including of course China \u2014 should NEVER be allowed to maintain or access DoD systems.\u201d<\/p>\n On Friday, Microsoft\u2019s chief communications officer Frank X. Shaw responded<\/a>: \u201cIn 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.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n