The United States is intensifying its technology and industry regulations targeting China, expanding its focus to include automobiles, artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductors, and electronic device components.
On July 22, the Senate Commerce Committee passed the "2026 Connected Vehicle Security Act," which restricts the import, manufacture, and sale of connected vehicles linked to hostile nations such as China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea.
The legislation prohibits the sale of vehicles from companies where entities established in hostile nations hold 15% or more of the company's shares, voting rights, or board seats. If enacted, this will primarily affect electric vehicle manufacturer Polestar, owned by China's Geely Automobile Group.
Concerns have also been raised that Mercedes-Benz, which has about 20% ownership from Chinese investors, could fall under these regulations. Senator Bernie Moreno, the bill's sponsor, noted that Mercedes-Benz would receive a grace period until 2030, with the possibility of exemptions if necessary.
Additionally, the U.S. government is reportedly investigating whether Chinese AI companies are circumventing advanced semiconductor export controls. The Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security is looking into whether companies like Moonshot AI have used NVIDIA's latest AI semiconductors, which are restricted for sale to China, through overseas subsidiaries or third-party data centers.
Moonshot AI is under scrutiny for allegedly using NVIDIA's Blackwell-based GB300 system in the development of its recently unveiled AI model, Kimi K3. Michael Kratios, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy director, claimed that Moonshot AI secured GB300 servers and utilized the equipment in Thailand.
There are also allegations that Moonshot AI extracted large amounts of responses from Anthropic's AI model, Claude, to train its own model. If violations of export regulations are confirmed, the companies could be added to the Department of Commerce's blacklist, and separate sanctions could be imposed for intellectual property infringements.
Regulations targeting Chinese telecommunications and electronic device components are also being strengthened. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has decided to ban the sale of devices that use key hardware components from Chinese companies like Huawei and ZTE, which are on the national security threat list. Previously, only new approvals for complete products manufactured by these companies were restricted, but now products containing semiconductors and communication-related components made by Huawei and others will also be regulated.
Brendan Carr, an FCC commissioner, stated, "We will completely close loopholes related to components." Chris McGuire, a former National Security Council official, pointed out that components with security issues, such as semiconductors or communication equipment, could be exploited to threaten entire devices.
The Trump administration has also broadened the scope of regulations on Chinese technology equipment. The FCC recently added more Chinese manufacturers' equipment to its ban list and is pursuing restrictions on the import of foreign drones and routers, as well as measures to block network connections between U.S. and Chinese telecommunications companies.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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