Nik Rajkovic / news@whmi.com

U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (MI-07) warned Wednesday morning in a speech on the House floor of the national security risks of the possible expansion of Chinese electric and autonomous vehicles, two types of connected vehicles, into the U.S. market.

Slotkin highlighted the potential for connected vehicles to transmit sensitive information on military installations and critical infrastructure to China.

Video of Slotkin’s speech is linked below.

"I rise today to do what I hope is part of the responsibility of a Member of Congress, which is to flag and alert for future threats that are just around the corner. For me, that threat is the potential for thousands of Chinese electric vehicles and connected vehicles coming into the U.S. marketplace," said Slotkin.

"We don't have a process in place right now to vet with a national security lens these imports that are coming in and I have a real problem with that. I think we need to get better at understanding that the future of threats is not necessarily just tanks and fixed wing airplanes and all those traditional things. It's data and who controls it.”

In recent years, the Chinese Communist Party has taken steps to heavily subsidize its auto manufacturing industry - including the production of electric vehicles, autonomous vehicles, and other vehicles with the ability to transmit data - in order to significantly increase exports. As a result, numerous Chinese manufacturers have released vehicles at significantly lower prices than U.S. or European manufacturers, which have the potential to upend western markets. For example, Chinese electric vehicles were first sold in Europe in 2019, and are now poised to represent nearly a quarter of the market.

These newer and more advanced vehicles have the capability to collect and transmit data - potentially back to the Chinese Communist Party. That data, collected by advanced systems like radar, light detection and ranging (LiDAR), cameras, and other sensors could include an unacceptable level of information and intelligence about U.S. military installations and critical infrastructure. This represents a serious threat to U.S. national security.

In February, the White House announced that the United States was opening an investigation into whether Chinese vehicles pose national security risks, which Slotkin welcomed.

Slotkin - a former CIA officer and Pentagon official - has already been outspoken about the threat of Chinese vehicles from her post as a member of the House Armed Services Committee. Earlier this month, she pushed Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth on the issue, and earlier this week, pushed Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin as well.

Last year, Slotkin also added a measure to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 that required the Department of Defense to produce a report on the threat of Chinese autonomous vehicles for Congress. The measure was passed into law as part of the legislation, and Slotkin pushed Secretary Austin on its status this week.

As a lifelong national security professional, Slotkin has engaged heavily in Congress on countering the threat of the Chinese Communist Party and ensuring that the United States can compete with China economically through the 21st century.

In March, she introduced with Republican Rep. Blake Moore (UT-01) the Protecting Against Foreign Adversary Investments Act which would provide expanded authority to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to conduct national security reviews of significant real estate purchases by foreign entities of concern - namely, companies with ties to China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea.

That legislation builds on the bipartisan Foreign Agricultural Restrictions to Maintain Local Agriculture and National Defense (FARMLAND) Act, which Slotkin introduced in August with Rep. Randy Feenstra (IA-04). That bill would expand CFIUS review authority to cover significant foreign purchases of agricultural land. It also includes a provision to add the Secretary of Agriculture as a full and permanent member of CFIUS, a provision included in the Consolidated Appropriations Act passed by Congress and signed into law on March 9.