Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Alvorada Palace in Brazil on Nov. 20, 2024. Foxit highlights clients such as the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the State Intellectual Property Office, and the National Standards Committee. (Ton Molina/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Over the course of reporting, multiple agencies confirmed they had either removed Foxit products or no longer maintained active contracts with Foxit's U.S. subsidiary.
An MDA spokesperson said Foxit had been used on an isolated network "not connected to any operational missile defense system" but is "no longer in any MDA system." The spokesperson did not say when Foxit had been removed from its systems but added that the team behind the initial decision to use the software is no longer with the agency, and that an updated review of all software is underway.
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Screengrab shows a list of Foxit's China clients, according to its website. (Fox News Digital )
Its Chinese website lists offices in Fuzhou, Beijing, Nanjing and Hefei.
U.S. agencies typically contract through the California-based Foxit Software Inc., not the Chinese parent, allowing Foxit to present itself as a U.S.-based company. Still, Foxit’s parent company remains subject to Chinese law — including the 2017 National Intelligence Law, which compels companies to assist Chinese intelligence if requested.
One analyst questioned whether the corporate separateness could fully insulate the U.S. subsidiary from the interests of the Chinese parent.
"It sounds especially similar to the TikTok argument. We're doing everything here, all the data is located here, we have TikTok USA. We're a Singaporean company, we have no relations with the Chinese mainland – outside of our corporate structure, which is almost wholly owned by a Chinese based company," said Joel Thayer, a Washington-based tech and telecommunications attorney.
"Chinese companies are masters of concealing their intentions through corporate filings and corporate infrastructure," he said.
Foxit counts Idax.ai as its subsidiary, a company specifically tailored to redact sensitive documents. "The company’s AI-powered solutions are aimed at professionals across various industries, including healthcare, finance, real estate, law, and government," according to a branded content release in NY Weekly.
Fox News Digital could not determine whether Idax has been used by government agencies.
Foxit claims to have 750 million users and over 425,000 clients around the world, with business centers not just in the U.S. and China but Japan, Europe and Australia, with plans to expand into Russia, Brazil and India.
Critics warn that even seemingly routine data could be of intelligence value.
"Even if Foxit isn’t being used for secret documents, the information the company could potentially glean would be invaluable to the CCP," said Thayer.
"You are basically banking on it that the platform isn’t behind the veil, collecting an immense amount of data about what contracts and services are being provided to our government," he said.
Foxit originally positioned itself as a cheaper alternative to Adobe Acrobat. But China tech watchers warn the discount may come with hidden risks.
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"That’s invaluable information for any of our adversaries – how much money a contract is worth, what services are being rendered, what technologies are they looking at, what are they hiring people to do, what the government is looking into… competitors would kill for that information," Thayer said.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/us-agencies-distance-themselves-from-chinese-founded-pdf-software