Defend American Privacy

Chinese technology companies, such as Lenovo, Lexmark, Hikvision, and DJI, are contracting with state governments, despite being barred from the U.S. military due to their security risks. These companies, either based in China or owned by Chinese entities, are obligated under Chinese law to obey the CCP’s commands. State government entities, including government departments, educational institutions, and law enforcement agencies, have procured a wide range of products from these companies. This poses a significant security threat to Americans.

These Chinese-controlled companies can access sensitive personal and financial information held by courts, police departments, elections departments, education departments, and other social service providers and agencies. Alarmingly, some of these companies collect facial recognition and critical infrastructure data. There is significant potential for these products to be abused as conduits for cyberattacks and general surveillance of Americans.

Despite escalating threats from China and greater awareness of national security vulnerabilities at the state level, state governments have continued to contract with and purchase from Chinese companies.

Chinese security equipment suppliers have infiltrated U.S. markets and are widely utilized, despite the risks they pose to national security. Nuctech, a particularly concerning Chinese security equipment provider, has embedded itself into security networks worldwide.

This CCP-owned company manufactures cargo, baggage, and human scanners that are used extensively across the globe, from border checkpoints to consequential ports of entry. Nuctech is subject to federal sanctions and the Chinese supplier has been flagged multiple times as posing national security risks. In Europe, Nuctech offices were even raided across the continent due to concerns.These security risks include the CCP accessing internal customs systems and shipment data. In other words, CCP officials can easily tap into systems showing who and what goes where and when. 

Similarly, HikVision, a dominant Chinese video surveillance firm, operates at least 600,000 networks of cameras in the United States, likely indicating that millions of HikVision cameras are deployed across American states. HikVision has been repeatedly sanctioned by the federal government, including for involvement in the CCP’s genocide against Uyghurs. At least one hundred U.S. towns, cities, and counties have awarded contracts to HikVision or similar companies. 

CCP-affiliated entities such as the Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI) are actively gathering the genetic information of millions of Americans every day. This data could be easily exploited to advance the CCP’s malign agenda, potentially leading to the weaponization of biological data.

BGI and similar CCP-funded enterprises amass sensitive genetic and medical data from millions of Americans for unknown and potentially hostile purposes. Taxpayer dollars should not be inadvertently fueling these efforts to subsidize biotech ventures linked to foreign adversaries, and states should unequivocally prohibit such practices. Allowing these entities access to vast pools of foreign genetic information poses a grave risk to U.S. national security.

Congress has introduced some protective measures, such as the BIOSECURE Act, designed to prevent foreign adversary biotech companies from using American taxpayer funds. State-level action is also crucial.