President Biden launched an “unprecedented” investigation Thursday into fears that high-tech Chinese cars pose “risks to our national security” — suggesting they’re being used to steal sensitive data and could even be “remotely accessed or disabled” on American roads.
“China is determined to dominate the future of the auto market, including by using unfair practices,” the president noted in a statement early Thursday.
“China’s policies could flood our market with its vehicles, posing risks to our national security. I’m not going to let that happen on my watch.”
The threat, Biden said, comes from how modern cars are “connected to our phones, to navigation systems, to critical infrastructure and to the companies that made them.”
“Connected vehicles from China could collect sensitive data about our citizens and our infrastructure and send this data back to the People’s Republic of China,” he warned.
Even domestically produced cars using high-tech Chinese parts could be disabled, he suggested.
“Why should connected vehicles from China be allowed to operate in our country without safeguards?” he asked.
“So today, I am announcing unprecedented actions to ensure that cars on US roads from countries of concern like China do not undermine our national security,” he said, saying it would be led by Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo.
The probe will not place any immediate restrictions on the import or sale of Chinese-made automobiles — which are becoming increasingly popular in Europe and Asia, according to the Washington Post.
But the agency would have the ability to prohibit or restrict the sales of such cars if it finds serious risk, under a Trump-era executive order that gave the president the power to protect domestic information and communications technology from national security threats.
It will also seek information from American manufacturers, including where they get their licensing software.
“Imagine if there were thousands of Chinese vehicles on American roads that could be immediately disabled by somebody in Beijing,” Raimondo said Wednesday, according to the Washington Post.
“It’s scary to contemplate.”
She said Biden launched the investigation now “before Chinese-manufactured vehicles become widespread in the US and potentially threaten our national security.”
The probe comes just three months after a bipartisan group of lawmakers, including House Energy Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) and China Select Committee Chair Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), first raised concerns about Chinese companies collecting and handling sensitive data while testing self-driving cars in the US.
In a letter to the Chinese-based self-driving car makers, the lawmakers said the companies “collect sensitive information about our citizens and their daily routines, the nation’s infrastructure and connected technologies.”
“There needs to be greater transparency about what information you collect while testing on American roads and whether you are financially tied to the Chinese Communist Party,” they argued.
But the China Passenger Car Association is saying it is unfair for the Biden administration to solely target its vehicles and impose restrictions on them exclusively, when many modern vehicles are equipped with intelligent sensors.
The Chinese Embassy also criticized the Biden administration’s proposals to impose restrictions on Chinese trade, urging the government to “stop hyping up the ‘China threat’ theory and its unwarranted suppression of Chinese companies.”
As part of the national security investigation, Biden’s probe also seeks to protect American automakers from the growing threat of competition from China.
Last year, the Communist nation became the world’s biggest auto exporter — shipping 5.26 million vehicles overseas, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing the China Passenger Car Association.
While the vehicles are mainly being exported throughout Asia and Europe, reports that electric vehicle maker BYD and other Chinese automakers are looking for factory locations in Mexico have increased concerns among the Big Three automakers in Detroit, according to the Washington Post.
By building the cars in Mexico, BYD — backed by Warren Buffett — and other Chinese car makers can avoid the tariffs that would be applied if they were sent to the United States directly from China.
They would also face fewer trade restrictions under the free-trade zone created by the United States-Mexico-Canada agreement, the successor of NAFTA.
“As president, I vowed to do right by auto workers and middle-class families that depend on the auto industry for jobs,” Biden said in Thursday’s statement.
“With this and other actions, we’re going to make sure the future of the auto industry will be made here in America with American workers,” he vowed.
With Post wires
