Im impressed as well. But I'm sure its not as impressive as what the NSA is capable of. If you're reading an article about this - its because the US government wants you to know about it. The US has been doing this kind of stuff well before the Chinese or anyone else... And yes, totally agree that this is probably fairly common place. Some comments have shown that this happens with run-of-the-mill hardware like credit card scanners.

This stuff also reminds me of the Snowden revelations of hard-disk firmware hacking. Very similar conceptually to what is described in this article - albeit without custom hardware.

Every major major nation can do this stuff one way or the other. But somehow I am used to software hacks by now. That someone is basically managing aphysical supply chain (with suppliers, production and all of that) within an existing one is a first for me. The only thing similar are stories of the Italian mafia getting stuff by customs by duplicating shipping containers, still what the Chinese did is different level. But the, being a supply chain guy, I have an easier time understanding this as compared to what NSA and GCHQ are doing.

if they really are widely seeded (and it’s general knowledge/easily assumed that the pla leans on other manufacturers), this gives me a few ideas about what could happen in the event of conflict between china and the US. turnkey shutdown of the entire economy.

It reminds me of that scene on Armageddon. "Russian parts, American parts, they all come from Taiwan." Now it's China. It is easier to spy when basically everything runs on hardware made in your country I guess.