CHAD WOLF: Congress has a chance to stop China from turning your car into a Chinese spy

Recent reporting about a British naval drone unknowingly sending data to China offers an urgent warning to policymakers in the United States.

During a routine cybersecurity assessment, the U.K. Ministry of Defence exposed a serious breach. It found that a component in its naval drones was secretly transmitting data to China. The drone was British. The hidden vulnerability was not.

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To be clear, this is part of Beijing’s playbook. It uses intellectual-property theft, cyberespionage and industrial policy to become indispensable to Western supply chains and then exploits that access to collect intelligence and create vulnerabilities it can use against its adversaries.

Our standard response has been to restrict Chinese technology only after the risks become impossible to ignore, often spending billions of dollars to rip and replace equipment already embedded in American networks and infrastructure.

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A worker assembles an SUV at a car plant of Li Auto, a major Chinese EV maker, in Changzhou in eastern China's Jiangsu province on March 27, 2024. (Chinatopix/AP/File)

Now, Beijing has its sights on conducting widespread espionage and sabotage in another sector – automobiles. But this time, America has the opportunity to act before it’s too late.

China is now the world’s largest vehicle exporter, and Chinese companies are major players not only in electric vehicles but in the batteries, software, sensors and connected technologies critical to modern cars.

Chinese automakers are using a variety of strategies to enter U.S. markets, and China’s rise as an automotive power presents an obvious challenge for American manufacturers. But as cars become more connected, China’s entry poses severe national security risks.

Modern vehicles are computers on wheels, equipped with cameras, microphones, sensors, GPS systems and internet-connected hardware. They collect enormous amounts of data about their drivers and surroundings, while software increasingly controls critical functions including steering, braking and acceleration.

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In the wrong hands, that access could provide a powerful tool for surveillance and espionage or potentially allow an adversary to remotely manipulate or disable vehicles.

Chinese cars on American roads would represent the most direct threat. But Chinese companies don’t need to sell millions of vehicles in America to gain a foothold in the U.S. automotive ecosystem.

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The same risks can be embedded in American, European, Japanese or South Korean vehicles through Chinese-made batteries, software and connected components.

At scale, these technologies could offer Beijing an extraordinary intelligence picture: where Americans live and work, which roads they travel and which vehicles regularly enter military bases, ports, power plants and other sensitive facilities.

In a crisis or conflict, the consequences could extend beyond surveillance. Vulnerabilities in technology embedded across millions of vehicles could potentially provide an adversary a means to disrupt transportation on a massive societal scale.

Chinese automakers are using a variety of strategies to enter U.S. markets, and China’s rise as an automotive power presents an obvious challenge for American manufacturers. But as cars become more connected, China’s entry poses severe national security risks.

Congress has an opportunity to address that threat before it manifests by passing the bipartisan Connected Vehicle Security Act, sponsored by Ohio Republican Sen. Bernie Moreno and Michigan Democrat Sen. Elissa Slotkin. The legislation builds on the Commerce Department’s connected-vehicle rule, which restricts vehicles, software and connectivity hardware linked to our enemies.

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Commerce concluded that foreign-adversary access to these technologies could enable the collection of sensitive data and remote manipulation of vehicles.

That was an important first step, but we must do more. Executive rulemaking can be reversed, but Congress has the chance to make it last. Only an act of Congress can make these national security protections permanent.

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The Connected Vehicle Security Act would codify and expand the protections outlined in the Commerce Department’s rulemaking across the supply chain. Critically, it reaches beyond finished Chinese automobiles to the connected technologies inside them, including software, communications equipment and electronics integrated into batteries.

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The Senate Commerce Committee advanced it unanimously in July. Congress should pass this legislation and send it to the president’s desk.

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America has repeatedly become dependent on Chinese technology only to later discover how difficult and expensive those dependencies were to unwind. Connected vehicles offer a chance to act before another dependency becomes entrenched.

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Chad F. Wolf served as acting Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security during President Trump’s first term.