SIA, Bull Moose Project Clash over Alleged China Links in GPS Backup Debate

WASHINGTON, Oct. 28, 2025 — A major trade association is disputing claims its membership has been infiltrated by China-domiciled companies seeking to influence policy at the Federal Communications Commission.

The Security Industry Association, which represents more than 1,600 global security solution providers, is clashing with Bull Moose Project, a conservative nonprofit that describes itself as dedicated to advancing an “America First” policy agenda. 

The two groups are at odds over BMP’s allegations that Chinese companies played a role in efforts to block a proposed 5G backup for the nation’s GPS system.

The dispute stems from a BMP report released earlier this month. The report argued that such links could undermine American leadership in developing resilient positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) technologies.

In the report, BMP identified two companies — Siterwell Electronics Co. and Think-Force — as Chinese members of the SIA, suggesting their involvement in efforts to delay or weaken FCC approval of NextNav’s TerraPoiNT, a proposed terrestrial PNT service that would use the lower 900 MHz spectrum as a backup to GPS.

But SIA pushed back saying BMP’s claims are inaccurate and misleading.

“SIA is continuing to be referenced by Bull Moose, even after being informed the companies they identified were resigned by SIA long ago,” an SIA spokesperson said. “The two Chinese companies cited are not current members of SIA. Siterwell Electronics joined SIA in 2018 and was resigned in 2019, and Think-Force joined in 2019 and was resigned in 2021.”

SIA emphasized that it has no Chinese-owned members and that its opposition to NextNav’s proposal is purely technical, not political.

“Our opposition to NextNav’s unworkable proposal stems from serious concerns, shared by many others, about the threat it poses to millions of Americans who rely on everyday devices such as smoke detectors, tolling systems, public safety communications, and IoT devices,” the spokesperson said. “We fully support establishing a GPS backup, but it must be done through solutions that strengthen, not undermine, critical U.S. safety and communications infrastructure.” SIA then called on BMP and NextNav to “correct their inaccurate claims about our membership.”

Bull Moose Project founder and president Aiden Buzzetti rejected SIA’s explanation, accusing the trade group of scrubbing its website after reporters began asking questions about the alleged Chinese members.

“After a reporter reached out to the Security Industry Association about our report, they systematically wiped public information off its website before contesting our reporting,” Buzzetti said in an email to Policyband. “SIA sloppily removed the mention of Think-Force and Siterwell from their website after our report was released, left the membership page live, and when called out, removed the text entirely.”

Buzzetti said his group obtained a 2020 membership report showing Siterwell listed as an SIA member, despite the association’s claim that it had resigned the previous year. He also said that as recently as May 2025, SIA’s online membership search tool included “China” as an option and confirmed the companies’ listings via the site’s chatbot feature.

“There are only two plausible reasons why this would happen,” Buzzetti added. “SIA either cannot accurately track or update their own membership backend, or they are lying.”