WASHINGTON, D.C. – Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown on Wednesday likened steps taken by the U.S. government and the private sector to stay ahead of China’s ongoing attempts to steal sensitive information as being similar to a popular arcade game.
Brown, a Democrat, has introduced legislation that would prohibit internet-connected vehicles produced in China and elsewhere from being within 25 miles of U.S. military bases and key government facilities.
Protecting national security and the county’s industrial base while at the same time improving the international strength and standing of the United States is the goal behind Brown’s bill, the Countering Adversary Reconnaissance Act of 2024. The veteran senator concedes that when it comes to stopping China, the target is constantly moving.
“We know this is like a game of Whac-A-Mole,” Brown told reporters on Wednesday. “We know China poses a threat to our national security. They steal trade secrets from U.S. companies and they are buying up sensitive land, farmland, near U.S. military bases. With this bill, we are trying to preempt a major problem.”
Brown said he will call on President Joe Biden to “ban Chinese-made connected vehicles, period.”
A connected car is a vehicle equipped with internet access, allowing it to share data with devices both inside and outside the car. This internet connection is usually achieved through mobile data networks, facilitating myriad services that can be remotely accessed via smartphones or other devices.
Such vehicles are currently being manufactured in Mexico, but Brown said the Chinese government is behind those efforts. Without a federal law to halt IC cars from entering the country, he said, average citizens could unknowingly and unwittingly transmit sensitive data to China.
The CAR Act would ban internet-connected vehicles from most land within several miles of military institutions nationwide, including Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio’s largest military compound, and the Joint Systems Manufacturing Center in Lima, a government-owned, contractor-operated facility.
Joining Brown on Wednesday’s conference call were Jeff Hoagland, president and chief executive officer of the Dayton Development Coalition, and Michael Stumo, chief operating officer for the Coalition for a Prosperous America.
Hoagland said internet-connected vehicles “are tied to security issues we’re seeing every day. There is significant concern about protecting information, and the No. 1 topic is China. The senator’s bill is aimed at the government of China, which has an adversarial relationship with the USA.”
Brown said details surrounding the enforcement of his bill “are not worked out as of yet, but the goal is to stop this before these cars are driving down our roads.”
