A bipartisan pair of US House members on Monday formally introduced legislation banning Chinese-made vehicles and connected components from American roads, citing national security and data-collection concerns just days before President Donald Trump’s state visit to Beijing.
The Connected Vehicle Security Act — introduced by Representative John Moolenaar (R-MI), chairman of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, and Representative Debbie Dingell (D-MI) — is the House companion to a Senate bill of the same name introduced April 29 by Senators Bernie Moreno (R-OH) and Elissa Slotkin (D-MI).
“The American auto industry is vital for jobs, national security, and the future of America’s manufacturing base,” Moolenaar said in a statement.
“China cheats in every industry, and in autos it is overproducing vehicles and components, and selling them for cheap in hopes they will put our companies out of business,” he added, accusing Chinese companies including CATL and BYD of using slave labor to undercut American wages.
Dingell described the legislation as a guard against repeating “the mistakes that hollowed out manufacturing communities across this country.”
The bill’s introduction arrives as Trump prepares to depart for his May 13-15 state visit to Beijing — his first trip to China during this term and the first state visit by a sitting US president to China since his own 2017 trip.
What the Bill Does
The Connected Vehicle Security Act would prohibit the importation, manufacture, sale, or introduction into US commerce of connected vehicles originating from or controlled by a covered foreign adversary country, effective January 1, 2027.
Software-related prohibitions would also take effect January 1, 2027, with hardware prohibitions following on January 1, 2030.
The legislation covers four designated adversaries: China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran.
The bill directs the Secretary of Commerce to establish a declaration of conformity process, authorization and waiver procedures, and a binding ruling and advisory opinion mechanism for industry compliance.
It establishes civil penalties of at least $1.5 million for each violation of the law.
The legislation builds on a 2019 Trump executive order that declared a national emergency with respect to foreign threats to America’s information and communications technology supply chain — establishing the legal authority for federal action.
The Biden administration used that authority to finalize regulations in January 2025 prohibiting connected vehicle software and hardware linked to China and Russia.
The Connected Vehicle Security Act would expand those protections in statute, lifting them from executive regulation into legislation that a future administration could not unilaterally roll back.
The Existing Tariff Wall
The barriers keeping Chinese EVs out of the US have been assembled across two administrations.
Trump’s first-term administration applied a 25% Section 301 tariff on Chinese vehicles and auto parts starting in 2018.
Under Biden’s presidency, the duties were maintained and, in May 2024, quadrupled from 25% to 100% under the same authority.
Upon returning to office in 2025, Trump preserved Biden’s 100% EV tariff and added a 25% Section 232 national security tariff on all imported vehicles and auto parts.
The combined tariff burden on a Chinese-manufactured EV entering the US exceeded 125%, making direct imports commercially unviable.
The US Supreme Court ruled on February 20, in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act did not authorize the president to impose tariffs, invalidating sweeping duties imposed under that authority in a 6-3 decision.
However, the ruling did not touch the Section 301 tariffs on Chinese EVs.
Trump replaced the lost IEEPA tariffs with a 10% global tariff under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, meaning Chinese electric vehicles currently pay a combined effective rate exceeding 110%.
In a Fox News phone interview last month, Trump called the 100% tariff on Chinese cars effective, saying it was “destroying Europe” because European automakers were losing market share to Chinese rivals that could not enter the US.
“We don’t have any Chinese cars in our country because they would have destroyed General Motors, Ford, they would have destroyed these companies if they did it,” the US President said.
What the Senate Bill Does
The Connected Vehicle Security Act of 2026 would prohibit the import, manufacture, sale, and operation of vehicles produced in China or any other country designated as a national security concern.
The bill bans connected vehicle technologies — software, data systems, and hardware — developed or linked to China and other foreign adversaries, including products tied to joint ventures or affiliated entities.
The legislation would empower the US Department of Commerce to identify and block high-risk vehicle technologies, components, and transactions that threaten national security.
The bill’s restrictions would phase in over time.
Software and vehicle rules would take effect in 2027, with hardware-related restrictions following in 2030, according to CBS News Detroit’s reporting on the Senate version.
The legislation builds on a Bureau of Industry and Security rule that the Commerce Department finalised in January 2025 under the prior administration, which restricted certain transactions involving connected vehicles containing specific Chinese hardware or software technologies.
That rule also prohibits Chinese-owned manufacturers from selling connected vehicles in the country even if they are produced domestically — a provision that undercuts Trump’s own January suggestion that Chinese automakers could build factories in the US.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer confirmed in April that the administration has no plans to alter the ban.
“Those rules are effective,” Greer said, adding that it would “probably be difficult for certain countries to establish new production here, given those sets of rules.”
The Rare Earth Counterweight
The tariff escalation last year did not go unanswered.
In response to the steep tariffs imposed last April, Beijing imposed export controls on seven rare earth elements.
A broader second wave followed in October 2025, adding further elements, processing technologies and — for the first time — extraterritorial provisions requiring export licenses for products made outside China using Chinese-origin materials or technologies.
China produces more than 90% of the world’s processed rare earths and rare earth magnets — materials critical for permanent magnet motors used in virtually every electric vehicle on the road.
Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe warned last year that “trade restrictions and what we’re seeing in terms of rare earth metals out of China, that’s a real challenge for electric vehicles,” noting that processing of the materials “happens almost exclusively in China.”
The Trump-Xi summit in Busan, South Korea last October produced a temporary truce.
China agreed to issue general licenses suspending the controls until November 2026 — making the May 14 meeting a potential inflection point for the EV supply chain.
The Auto Industry Closes Ranks
The bill has drawn unusual cross-industry support, with major US automakers, foreign-brand manufacturers, parts suppliers, and the United Auto Workers all backing the legislation.
General Motors commended the Senate sponsors on the bill’s introduction.
“General Motors supports policies that protect and strengthen American manufacturing and the global competitiveness of US automakers, and we remain committed to long-term investments in our domestic workforce, facilities, and technology,” the company said.
Honda — Ohio’s largest auto manufacturer — also endorsed the proposal.
The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents nearly every major automaker selling in the US, said the legislation “sends a clear message: The US will not throw open the doors to Chinese automakers to manufacture or sell here.”
UAW President Shawn Fain backed the legislation through the union’s national leadership, framing it as essential to protecting “good union auto jobs.”
Moreno — who previously accused Waymo of bypassing the connected vehicles rule by importing Geely-built robotaxis — said the legislation would “hermetically seal” the US market from the Chinese auto industry.
Slotkin described Chinese vehicles as “surveillance packages on wheels.”
Congressional Pressure Ahead of Summit
The legislative push is part of a broader effort by US lawmakers to pressure the Trump administration not to ease restrictions on Chinese vehicles during the Beijing summit.
The Senate bill followed letters from three Democratic senators — Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Slotkin, and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) — who warned that allowing Chinese automakers into the US would create an economic advantage that American manufacturers could not overcome.
The senators also urged the administration to designate BYD and other Chinese automakers as military-connected entities.
On April 28, more than 70 House Democrats led by Dingell and Ro Khanna (D-CA) sent a letter to Trump urging him not to lower barriers for Chinese automobiles during the meeting with Xi.
“As you prepare for your upcoming summit with the President of the People’s Republic of China, any effort to lower barriers for Chinese automobiles or otherwise facilitate their entry into the US market would pose a direct threat to American manufacturing, workers, and national security,” the letter stated.
A separate letter signed by 52 House Republicans urged the same position.
In a January speech to the Detroit Economic Club, Trump had suggested openness to allowing Chinese automakers to manufacture in the United States, saying “if they want to come in, and build the plant, and hire you and hire your friends and your neighbors, that’s great, I love that.”
The connected vehicle rule — which his own trade representative has confirmed will remain in place — would prevent that from happening in practice.
Slotkin told NBC News the Trump-Xi summit was the direct impetus for the bill’s timing.
“We are watching very closely what deals come out of that summit,” she said.
The White House Response
The White House has dismissed the Democratic outcry, with spokesman Kush Desai telling The Detroit News that “while the Administration is always seeking more investment into America’s industrial resurgence, any notion that we would ever compromise our national security is baseless and false.”
Greer has described the current tariff regime as a “stable situation” with China and said the administration is “not looking for massive confrontation.”
He has also publicly supported a Board of Trade concept — first introduced in Paris earlier this year — which could focus on expanding trade in less sensitive product categories and potentially reducing tariffs on those goods.
Whether electric vehicles would fall within the scope of such managed trade arrangements remains unclear.
The Security Argument
The lawmakers’ national security argument rests on three pillars: surveillance risk, cyber risk, and physical disruption risk.
Moolenaar outlined a Taiwan-conflict scenario during a December 2025 hearing titled “Trojan Horse: China’s Auto Threat to America.”
He suggested that in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, senior US officials rushing toward the Pentagon and White House could find roads obstructed if Chinese-made vehicles suddenly stalled, swerved, or locked their brakes.
The cybersecurity dimension draws on former FBI Director Christopher Wray’s 2024 congressional testimony, which warned that Chinese state-backed hacking groups — including Volt Typhoon — were positioning themselves to disrupt critical US infrastructure, including transportation systems.
The Economic Argument
The economic case for the ban centres on the scale of Chinese state support for the country’s automotive sector.
The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation estimates that the Chinese government directed approximately $230.9 billion in subsidies to its electric vehicle industry between 2009 and 2023.
China exports nearly 8 million vehicles annually and is the world’s largest automotive exporter.
Stephen Ezell, ITIF’s vice president for global innovation policy, warned in September 2025 that allowing Chinese Communist Party-backed automakers to enter the US market — even through US-based manufacturing — could create an “extinction-level event” for the American automobile industry.
Chinese EVs in the US
Chinese-built vehicles have already started appearing on American roads through Mexico.
BYD vehicles with Mexican license plates have been spotted in Texas and California through a customs loophole that allows Mexican residents to drive their foreign-registered vehicles across the border — despite the tight rules on Chinese vehicles’ connectivity in the US.
The phenomenon highlights one of the regulatory gaps that the Connected Vehicle Security Act of 2026 would close.
The Canadian Contrast
The US legislative push stands in sharp contrast to Canada’s approach.
In January, Ottawa struck a trade deal with Beijing allowing up to 49,000 Chinese-made EVs into Canada annually at a 6.1% tariff rate — replacing the 100% surtax imposed in late 2024 — with the quota expanding to 70,000 vehicles annually by 2030.
In exchange, China lowered retaliatory tariffs on Canadian canola seed and removed anti-discrimination tariffs on Canadian lobster, crab and peas.
Canada began accepting import permits for Chinese-built EVs on March 1.
Lotus shipped the first Chinese-built EVs to Canada under the new framework in May, becoming the first manufacturer to physically deliver vehicles into the country under the quota.
Tesla operationalised the same supply chain shift in May by sourcing its Canadian Model 3 lineup from Shanghai rather than Fremont.
Canada is now developing data protection rules for connected vehicles specifically in response to concerns about Chinese-built EVs.
The Conservative opposition has pledged to scrap the quota entirely and ban Chinese-linked vehicle software to align with US cybersecurity rules.
The deal has widened a divide between the North American neighbors on China policy.
More than half of Canadians surveyed said a vehicle’s Chinese origin would not affect their buying decision, according to Nanos Research Group polling, while a majority of American EV buyers expressed unfavorable views of Chinese car brands.
US Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra has ruled out any path for Chinese-made vehicles in Canada to reach the US market, citing the existing US restrictions that the Connected Vehicle Security Act of 2026 would codify into law.
The House version is expected to be introduced before the end of May, with the Senate’s Connected Vehicle Security Act of 2026 already in committee.
