China-linked company gets E-ZPass contract for the New Jersey Turnpike; something is off

A Singapore-owned company with links to China is under scrutiny after it won the E-ZPass contract for the New Jersey Turnpike.

The company, TransCore, won an 11-year contract from the New Jersey Turnpike Authority to run the E-ZPass customer service operation.

E-ZPass is an electronic toll collection system that makes tolling (charging fees to travel over an area) quicker and more convenient.

In winning, TransCore beat Conduent, Inc., which has since filed a complaint challenging TransCore’s victory, arguing that it, Conduent, had bid to do the job for roughly $250 million less.

In its complaint, Conduent also points out that TransCore was recently sold to the Singapore-based company Singapore Technologies Engineering (ST Engineering) and that ST Engineering is itself owned by Temasek Holdings, which is completely owned by the government of Singapore, with significant ties to China.

Indeed, Fu Chengyu, a longtime chairman of state-owned Chinese oil companies and longtime member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), was a member of Temasek’s board of directors until recently.

Three years ago, the Washington Free Beacon confirmed that Chengyu also previously served on the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, which is a central part of the CCP’s so-called “united front” system.

“Although Fu stepped down from [Temasek’s] board about six weeks after Conduent’s initial protest, he remains influential within Temasek as a director of a China-specific subsidiary of the company,” according to Fox Business Network.

Dovetailing back to ST Engineering’s purchase of TransCore, that happened during the Biden administration in 2021.

At the time, a spokesperson for the company insisted to the Treasury Department that it operated “without any interference from the government [of Singapore] or Temasek.”

However, national security experts warned that the U.S. motorist data that passed through TransCore would eventually wind up in the hands of the Singapore government, as well as China.

“Individuals, businesses and government entities that sign up for automatic payments at toll booths provide sensitive information – including addresses, credit card numbers, driver’s license information and license plate numbers – to tolling operators such as TransCore,” Fox Business Network notes.

It’s very similar to the problem that TikTok poses. The popular social media app is owned by ByteDance, which is owned by the Chinese government. Last year Congress passed a law demanding the site even divest from China or shutter its operations in the U.S.

That being said, according to former U.S. Senator Robert Torricelli, a Democrat and Conduent consultant, TransCore poses an even bigger threat than TikTok.

“I don’t really understand why this hasn’t gotten a lot, frankly, a lot more attention,” he told Fox Business Network. “I would rather the Chinese knew what I was watching on TikTok than have the Chinese monitoring my car going up and down the New Jersey Turnpike. I don’t really understand why people aren’t more upset about it.”

He further warned that top federal government officials who travel between New York and D.C. could have their data and traveling habits monitored by TransCore and thus the Singaporean and Chinese governments.

“There has to be some national security concern here,” he said. “It is enormously more important than whatever nonsense is going on with TikTok, but it largely has been under the radar.”

Questioned by Fox Business Network, the New Jersey Turnpike Authority (NJTA) declined to comment about Torricelli’s concerns. A spokesperson did confirm though that Conduent’s complaint against TransCore is still being considered.

As for TransCore, its president and CEO, Whitt Hall, told Fox Business Network that the company “has always been absolutely transparent about its ownership structure” and that it’s “the only toll system provider in the world to manufacture all of its tolling products within the U.S.”

“TransCore delivers the most secure toll systems in the U.S. through a multi-tiered approach of best-in-class system design, strict compliance with all state and agency-specific data and cybersecurity requirements, and its National Security Agreement (NSA) that is in place with the U.S. Departments of Justice and Treasury to assure that no personally identifiable information or protected data collected is ever accessible by or shared with any foreign entity or affiliate,” he added. “Any allegations to the contrary are false.”

Vivek Saxena

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