President Donald Trump’s latest push to counter the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) won immediate praise from members of Congress who are themselves China hawks. Under the leadership of Chairman Brendan Carr, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced that it is banning imports of Chinese-made power inverters, which several members of the conservative Republican Study Committee (RSC) hailed as a win for both American national security and for energy independence.
Rep. August Pfluger (R., Texas), the RSC’s chair, explained why Carr’s move is essential. “The United States’s electric grid cannot be another avenue for influence from our adversaries,” Pfluger, a longtime military veteran, explained. “For years, the Chinese Communist Party has worked to embed itself inside our critical infrastructure, and our technology must never answer to a foreign power. We sounded the alarm last year because our enemies will exploit every vulnerability we leave open, and this Administration understood the stakes. I am grateful President Trump and his team took the bold action necessary to shut this threat down swiftly.”
Rep. Ben Cline (R., Va.), the RSC’s vice chair, added that “the Chinese Communist Party is the greatest threat to American national security and prosperity,” based on everything from its history of “stealing technology to gaining access to sensitive information.”
“Following a report that Chinese-manufactured solar and battery inverters deployed across the nation contain undisclosed communication devices, my RSC colleagues and I urged the Department of Commerce to take action to safeguard our grid and protect our data,” Cline added. “I applaud the Trump administration’s decision to ban imports of new power adapters and cut off access to Communist China.”
Another RSC member and military veteran, Rep. Zach Nunn (R., Iowa) keeps tabs on China in his role as the RSC’s National Security Task Force Chairman. Nunn explained that “keeping America’s power grid secure means keeping high-risk Chinese technology out of it.”
“I’ve spent my career tracking threats from China, Russia, and Iran, and I know the Chinese Communist Party doesn’t export critical technology out of goodwill, Nunn added. “It exports it to gain leverage. I applaud the administration for listening to our warning and taking action to protect America’s critical infrastructure and strengthen our domestic energy supply chain.” But, Nunn said, there is more work to do; “now we need to finish the job by empowering American workers and manufacturers to build the energy infrastructure Iowa families rely on every day.”
Rep. Pat Harrigan (R., N.C.), another military veteran in the RSC, has been pushing the Trump administration to follow this course of action since he was elected to Congress, and he said that he appreciates the “decisive action” taken.
“The Chinese Communist Party has spent years looking for ways to embed itself in America’s critical infrastructure,” Harrigan explained. “As our electric grid evolves to support AI, advanced manufacturing, and next-generation energy systems, we should be reducing those vulnerabilities, not expanding them…Securing the technologies that power America is every bit as important as securing the networks that defend it.”
Another RSC member, Rep. Sheri Biggs (R., S.C.), explained why the push by the Trump administration “to safeguard our nation’s infrastructure” is important.
“For too long, America has allowed China to infiltrate our critical systems, threatening national security, and endangering the safety of all Americans,” Biggs said. “I am proud to join my Republican colleagues in pushing this ban forward.”
The RSC has long been one of the leading voices in Congress that focuses on the threat that the CCP poses to American national security; last year, 55 RSC members sent a letter to the Trump administration emphasizing the threats that Chinese-manufactured solar panels and battery inverters pose.
