‘China is looking for any way to infiltrate and undermine the United State,’ Sen. Joni Ernst says.
A bipartisan group of 23 lawmakers is urging Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to investigate networking equipment made by TP-Link Technologies and its affiliates, warning that their devices, particularly security cameras, could potentially become tools for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to spy on the U.S. military.
The lawmakers—led by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), and Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa)—sent a letter dated Nov. 13 to Lutnick, saying that the investigation is necessary because “open-source information indicates that TP-Link represents a serious and present danger” to the security of the U.S. information communication technology services.
“China is looking for any way to infiltrate and undermine the United States,” Ernst wrote in an X post on Nov. 13.
“I am calling on the Trump [administration] to investigate and determine if TP-Link is a [Trojan] horse for the CCP to spy on the American people and our military bases.”
TP-Link products “are currently sold through” the Army and Air Force Exchange and the Navy Exchange, the lawmakers wrote, thus “placing these devices in proximity to U.S. military installations and personnel on American soil and abroad.”
These exchanges, maintained by the Department of War, are for military members, their families, and retirees, and provide “military installations with goods and services similar to department stores,” according to a report from the Congressional Research Service. The Army and Air Force Exchange “operates more than 5,500 facilities with operations in more than 30 countries and four U.S. territories,” the report stated.
The Navy Exchange has more than 300 stores around the world, and stores aboard more than 100 ships, according to its website.
The exchanges also sell goods online, currently including TP-Linkproducts.
“Right now, nothing stops CCP-tied companies from spying on Americans through internet-connected cameras in our homes,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter.
“The Chinese Communist Party can capture and exploit these videos to track, blackmail, or extort U.S. citizens—including top government and military officials.”
By Frank Fang
