Trump Moves to Stop China’s Robot Invasion

The Trump administration has moved to keep a new generation of foreign-made robots out of the United States, warning that machines equipped with cameras, microphones, artificial intelligence (AI), and remote-control capabilities could become tools for espionage, cyberattacks, or physical sabotage.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently issued a National Security Determination which added foreign-produced advanced robotic devices to its “Covered List,” meaning that foreign companies generally cannot get federal approval to import or sell new models of these products in the United States. The FCC also restricted new foreign-made robotics components used in solar arrays, battery systems, data centers, homes, and the electrical grid.

Although the restrictions apply to foreign-produced systems generally, China is plainly at the center of the administration’s concerns. Beijing is the world’s largest producer of humanoid robots and is competing aggressively with the United States for leadership in robotics and AI.

China responded by accusing the United States of abusing national security concerns to target Chinese companies. But the administration’s determination concluded that foreign-produced robots create “unacceptable” cybersecurity and supply-chain risks as the machines become increasingly integrated into American life.

The restrictions apply to mobile humanoid robots, four-legged “robot dogs,” and wheeled or tracked machines weighing more than 4.4 pounds. Any devices that have sensors that perceive its surroundings, network connectivity, and software that controls its movement, navigation, data collection, or remote operation are covered under the new FCC rule.

The action does not cover stationary industrial robotic arms, medical and surgical robots, mobility aids, drones, connected vehicles, underwater vehicles, or machines operating exclusively on rail lines. It also does not ban foreign robots that have already received FCC authorization, meaning Americans can continue purchasing and using previously approved models.

This policy shift comes as robots are becoming ubiquitous in American life and the U.S. economy. Advanced machines are increasingly being used in warehouses, manufacturing plants, infrastructure inspections, physical security, dangerous industrial environments, homes, and the military.

The administration’s National Security Determination finds that the importance of advanced robots will only increase as AI improves their ability to operate with limited human direction.

BCC Research estimates that the global humanoid-robot market will grow from $1.9 billion in 2025 to $11 billion by 2030 – an annual growth rate of nearly 43 percent. China’s integrated supply chains and government-backed commercialization efforts have positioned it to capture a significant share of that expansion.

“This emerging market and the future of American industry are targets for Beijing,” Professor Wernfried Scharfspitz told me in an interview. “As with solar panels and electric vehicles, China has sought to dominate this sector.”

The comparison is instructive. American policymakers fear that Chinese companies could use state subsidies, enormous manufacturing scale, and artificially low prices to overwhelm American competitors before the domestic robotics industry has fully matured. Once U.S. factories and infrastructure become dependent on Chinese machines, Beijing could gain both economic leverage and access to extraordinary quantities of sensitive information.

Modern robots are not simply mechanical tools. They are mobile, networked computers capable of seeing, hearing, mapping, and interacting with the physical world. Many use LiDAR, cameras, microphones, thermal sensors, and other equipment to create detailed pictures of their surroundings. A compromised robot deployed in a factory, power plant, data center, military facility, or private home could therefore provide a foreign adversary with far more than ordinary consumer data.

The administration cited recent vulnerabilities that allegedly exposed live camera feeds, microphone audio, and detailed maps collected by foreign-made household robots. Another flaw reportedly allowed an attacker to commandeer humanoid robots and scan for nearby machines, raising the possibility of a self-propagating “humanoid botnet.” Researchers also identified a suspected backdoor in foreign made “robot dogs” that could permit access to their cameras and physical controls.

Congress has already sounded the alarm over one of China’s largest robotics manufacturers, Unitree. In a bipartisan letter to senior administration officials, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party warned that Unitree robots reportedly contained an undocumented remote-access tunnel known as CloudSail. The service allegedly connected to company servers in China and was enabled by default.

According to the committee, malign actors could potentially tunnel into a robot, stream video, or access its systems remotely. The committee also raised concerns about Unitree’s relationships with Chinese military-linked institutions and the similarities between its commercial robot dogs and machines used in military applications.

Those concerns led Select Committee Chairman John Moolenaar (R-MI), Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-CA), and Rep. Jennifer McClellan (D-VA) to introduce the bipartisan Guarding the U.S. Against Adversarial Robotics Dominance (GUARD) Act in June.

The GUARD Act would require national security agencies to review humanoid and quadruped robots produced by China and other foreign adversaries. Systems found to pose unacceptable risks would be placed on the FCC’s Covered List. The Trump administration’s new action goes even further by presumptively covering all new foreign-produced advanced mobile robots unless specifically cleared.

The FCC applied similar reasoning to connected power inverters. These devices convert electricity generated by solar panels and batteries into the alternating current used by homes, businesses, data centers, and the grid. Federal officials warned that compromised foreign-made inverters could be remotely disabled, manipulated, used to collect data, or exploited as entry points into critical infrastructure.

The United States is still in the early stages of the robotics revolution. That is precisely why the administration acted now.

Once foreign-controlled machines are embedded throughout American factories, utilities, military facilities, workplaces, and homes, removing them would be expensive and disruptive. Preventing that dependency before it takes hold is far easier and far safer than discovering too late that America built its automated future on technology an adversary could watch, disable, or control.