Written by David Shepherdson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The White House said on Thursday the United States would begin investigating whether car imports from China pose a national security risk and could impose restrictions over concerns about “connected” car technology. Announced.
The White House said the Commerce Department’s investigation comes as smart vehicles assembled in China could collect sensitive data about American citizens and infrastructure and send it to China.
“China’s policies could flood our markets with Chinese vehicles and pose a risk to our national security,” President Joe Biden said in a statement. “I won’t allow that to happen under my watch.”
White House officials told reporters it was too early to say what steps would be taken, and no decisions had been made about possible bans or restrictions on connected vehicles made in China.
Officials said in a call with reporters that the U.S. government has broad authority under the law and that executive action “could have a significant impact.”
Biden called the effort “an unprecedented step to ensure that vehicles on American roads from countries of concern like China do not compromise our national security,” and told the Commerce Department: “Take measures to address the risks.”
Relatively few Chinese-made small cars are imported into the United States. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said the government was taking action “before Chinese-made vehicles become widespread in the United States and potentially pose a threat to privacy and national security.”
Chinese EV makers are looking to Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Europe as their biggest export markets. BYD, the world’s largest EV maker by sales, has repeatedly said it has no plans to sell its vehicles in the U.S. market.
Separately, the Biden administration is considering new tariffs on Chinese-made cars, and officials are facing new pressure to restrict imports of Chinese electric vehicles from Mexico.
The White House said the threat could arise because cars “collect vast amounts of sensitive data about drivers and passengers, and regularly use cameras and sensors to record detailed information about America’s infrastructure.” He said there is.
The White House also said vehicles could be “remotely controlled or disabled,” adding that the investigation would also look at self-driving vehicles.
The Chinese embassy in Washington repeatedly criticized the Biden administration’s proposal to impose new restrictions on Chinese trade and called for “an end to the exaggeration of the ‘China threat’ narrative and unjustified suppression of Chinese companies.”
In November, a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers warned that Chinese companies were collecting and handling sensitive data during self-driving car tests in the United States.
The Commerce Department will solicit comments on the potential risks of China’s connected cars for 60 days before considering draft regulations to address concerns.
The notice released Thursday also asks for details about current U.S. vehicle assembly, including where automakers license their software.
“We need to understand the range of technologies in these cars that can collect a wide range of data and allow connected cars to be remotely disabled and manipulated,” Raimondo said.
The United States had previously banned Chinese carriers from the market over data concerns, designated Huawei and ZTE as threats and asked U.S. carriers to remove equipment from U.S. networks.
The White House said China is imposing significant restrictions on U.S. and other foreign vehicles operating in China. “Why should connected cars from China be allowed to drive in our country without safety measures?” Biden said.
China has increased scrutiny of domestic data management in recent years, requiring most industries to apply for permission before storing domestically generated data and transferring it overseas.
Authorities in May proposed tightening data regulations for the auto industry, banning Chinese smart cars from directly transferring data overseas and encouraging the use of domestic cloud services instead.
(Reporting by David Shepherdson; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
