A bipartisan group of 23 lawmakers, led by Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, is urging the Trump administration to investigate and consider banning products sold by a tech company with alleged links to the Chinese Communist Party and its affiliates in the United States.
In a letter Thursday to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, the lawmakers voiced concerns about TP-Link Systems Inc., whose networking and smart-home products are sold at U.S. Army, Air Force, and Navy exchanges.
Access to the exchanges is limited to active-duty personnel, military families, students at military schools, Department of War employees, and veterans.
TP-Link also sells Wi-Fi routers, smart cameras, baby monitors, and smart plugs that are popular in the U.S. commercial market.
The company is based in Shenzhen, China, and has a smaller headquarters in Irvine, California.
The lawmakers raised particular concerns about internet-connected security camera companies such as TP-Link using cloud-based platforms to store customer videos.
By using advanced software and generative artificial intelligence tools, they wrote, China “can analyze and exploit video and data from these systems to monitor individual and group behavior, geolocate known persons, and uncover private or sensitive activities without users’ consent or awareness.”
The letter added: “Right now, nothing stops CCP-tied companies from spying on Americans through internet-connected cameras in our homes. The Chinese Communist Party can capture and exploit these videos to track, blackmail, or extort U.S. citizens — including top government and military officials.”
Last month, the Trump administration was reportedly weighing whether to issue an “initial determination” that TP-Link poses a national security threat, following an investigation into the company’s China ties that began last year.
Such a finding would put TP-Link a step closer to having its U.S. operations restricted or banned. The assessment has been ready for some time, but pressure has increased in recent weeks to move it forward.
“China is looking for any way to infiltrate and undermine the United States,” Ernst, chair of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities, wrote Thursday on X. “I am calling on the Trump admin to investigate and determine if TP-Link is a trojan horse for the CCP to spy on the American people and our military bases.”
A TP-Link Systems Inc. spokesperson told the New York Post that the company holds only about 3% of the U.S. security-camera market and emphasized that TP-Link “has located its core security functions and data infrastructure in the United States.”
“TP-Link products do not present national security risks to the United States,” the spokesperson said. “TP-Link emphatically objects to any allegation it is tied to the Communist Party of China, dependent on the Chinese government, or otherwise subject to interference under Chinese national security laws.
“Neither the Chinese government nor the CCP exercises any form of ownership or control over TP-Link, its products, or its user data. TP-Link’s founder and CEO, Jeffrey Chao, resides in Irvine, CA, and is not and never has been a member of the CCP.”
The spokesperson also said that U.S. data is stashed on “Amazon Web Services infrastructure in Virginia.”
“TP-Link does not enable foreign surveillance of U.S. networks or users,” the spokesperson said. “The company’s operations are built to prevent potential attempts to subvert its business by outside influence.”
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