A Good Week For U.S.-China Tech Policy
By Paul Steidler: Yesterday the U.S. House of Representatives took significant steps towards protecting the government’s technology infrastructure from Chinese hackers and other malicious parties. It passed the Removing Our Unsecure Technologies to Ensure Reliability and Security or ROUTERS Act and other technology legislation. Our latest newsletter reviews these developments.
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A Good Week For U.S.-China Tech Policy
Yesterday the U.S. House of Representatives took significant steps towards protecting the government’s technology infrastructure from Chinese hackers and other malicious parties. It passed the Removing Our Unsecure Technologies to Ensure Reliability and Security or ROUTERS Act.
The Lexington Institute’s Dr. Rebecca Grant wrote in a May 31 article, “Any router made by a bad actor country may contain features that make it a cyber weapon.”
She adds, “The ROUTERS Act will compel the Commerce Department to investigate and list dangerous products,” whose sales can then be halted. U.S. government agencies, including NASA and the Department of Defense, reportedly purchased routers from the Chinese company TP-Link.
The resounding vote was not a surprise. The House Energy and Commerce Committee had previously voted 43-0 to pass the ROUTERS Act, following the bipartisan leadership of Representatives Bob Latta (R-OH) and Mary Peltola (D-AK).
On August 13, the Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party wrote to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo about these issues.
In their letter, Representatives John Moolenaar (R-MI) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-CA) urged the Secretary to “investigate TP-Link Technologies Co., Ltd. (TP-Link) and its affiliates under the Department of Commerce’s information and communication technology services (ICTS) authorities.” They continued, “Open-source information indicates that the company may represent a serious threat to U.S. ICTS security.”
The U.S. Senate should move quickly to enact the ROUTERS Act and prioritize focusing on other legislation protecting America from nefarious Chinese cyber activity.
The U.S. House of Representatives brought focus to the strategic challenges at hand by designating its first week back from recess, the week of September 9, “China Week.” This means there will be votes on bills pertaining to issues like Chinese-made drones and electrical vehicle battery production.
Congress needs to stay vigilant on China issues. The stakes between the U.S. and China in tech competition are enormous and will determine the strength of each country’s economy and military, as well as who will lead the world in the 21st century.
Bipartisan cooperation is essential for the U.S. to prevail and Congress should build on the success of the House’s passage of the ROUTERS Act.