Those stories turned out to be bogus.
There were definitely counter fitted chips in cisco gear, but they did not have the capability to be remotely re-programmed.
Then the stories were not bogus at all. China got their crap into our stuff.
A story came out a couple of years ago reporting Chinese manufactured electronic components were being installed in some of our missile systems that had back doors that enabled our enemy to shut down or send them astray. The article indicated they were attempting to purge these components. My guess, it is wide spread and likely we will not realize the size and scope.
Simply astonishing we’d open ourselves to such danger.
http://defensetech.org/2012/05/30/smoking-gun-proof-that-military-chips-from-china-are-infected/