Microsoft has said it will stop using engineers based in China to provide technical assistance on the US military cloud, following an investigation by non-profit journalism outlet ProPublica.

ProPublica reported that Microsoft was using engineers in China to help maintain the Defense Department's computer systems on July 15.

The report acknowledged that these engineers were overseen by US citizens with security clearances known as "digital escorts," but that those workers lack the necessary technical expertise to "police foreign engineers with far more advanced skills."

ProRepublic went on to state: "Some are former military personnel with little coding experience who are paid barely more than minimum wage for the work."

One digital escort told the publication: "We’re trusting that what they’re doing isn’t malicious, but we really can’t tell.”

Microsoft told ProPublica that the government was aware of the business model, but Deven King, spokesperson for the Defense Information Systems Agency, told the publication: “Literally no one seems to know anything about this, so I don’t know where to go from here.”

Since the investigation came to light, Microsoft's chief communications officer Frank X. Shaw posted on X: “In 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.”

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth commented on the report via X, writing: “Foreign engineers — from any country, including of course China — should NEVER be allowed to maintain or access DoD systems.”

Hegseth has since launched a two-week review to check that China-based Engineers are not involved in any other cloud computing contracts within the Defense Department.

Microsoft was previously awarded the $10bn Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract that was set to last for 10 years in 2019, though this was later canceled.

The cloud giant was one of four winners of the replacement to JEDI - the $9 billion Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability contract (JWCC).