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Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
Electric vehicles may become a new front in America's tech war with China after a US senator called for Washington DC to block Chinese-made EVs to protect domestic industries and national security.
Sherrod Brown, senator for Ohio and chair of the Senate Banking Committee, penned a letter to President Biden, claiming "there are currently no Chinese EVs for sale in the United States, and we must keep it that way."
He warned that "Chinese EVs, highly subsidized by the Chinese government, could decimate our domestic automakers, harm American workers, and give China access to sensitive personal data," insisting the US government must ban Chinese-made EVs as soon as possible, calling it "a matter of economic and national security."
The move comes as the dispute between the two economic superpowers over technology rumbles on, with the US last week sanctioning four more Chinese companies, claiming they were involved with providing chips for accelerating AI to China's military and intelligence users.
Among those added to the Entity List maintained by the US Department of Commerce was Sitonholy (Tianjin) Co, understood to be one of the largest distribution channels for Nvidia's datacenter products in China, thus cutting off supplies of Nvidia GPUs to many Chinese companies.
[...] The number of Chinese cars purchased by US customers is understood to be very low as these are subject to an extra 25 percent tariff on top of the regular 2.5 percent import duty that DC applies to imported vehicles.
However, Senator Brown notes in his letter that BYD already sells an electric hatchback named the "Seagull" for the equivalent of less than $10,000. This compares with the $28,140 that has been reported as the starting price of the current cheapest electric car available in the US, the 2024 Nissan LEAF S.
There is also a national security twist as Senator Brown claims that data collected by the sensors and cameras in Chinese EVs could pose a threat. "China does not allow American-made electric vehicles near their official buildings. To allow their vehicles freedom to travel throughout the United States would be foolish and highly dangerous," he stated.
Senator Brown also claims in his letter that nearly 20 percent of all electric vehicles sold in Europe during 2023 were made in China, citing this as a cautionary example.
The European Commission last year announced an investigation into subsidies in the Chinese EV industry, but there are said to be misgivings in Germany and elsewhere that a ban on Chinese EVs could backfire, with Beijing retaliating by locking Western carmakers out of the lucrative China market entirely.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by SomeRandomGeek on Wednesday April 17, @03:18PM (7 children)
I've generally been pretty supportive of the shift away from free trade in the last few years. The economy had become too dependent on too many unreliable partners during the last round of globalization. But this just seems like plain old fashioned protectionist BS. The national security justification for this is transparently thin. Sure, China can plant surveillance devices in Chinese made cars while they are in the factory. But just as easily, they could plant those same devices on US made cars while they are parked on the street. It would probably be a lot easier to bug the right car that way.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Username on Wednesday April 17, @05:28PM (3 children)
All cars are network connected. Tesla can remotely see the dashcam, cabincam in their cars. Also lock them out, and stop them. Why wouldn't China have the same?
(Score: 4, Funny) by DannyB on Wednesday April 17, @06:37PM (2 children)
<no-sarcasm>
Something you left out: on a massive scale.
China could disable their vehicles in the US on a massive scale. Maybe not every vehicle. But enough to cause significant disruption. Part of a prelude to an attack.
Lock people in their disabled cars on roadways.
What is the potential for China to remotely drive the vehicles turning them into killer robots during an invasion of Taiwan?
</no-sarcasm>
What is the potential for Tesla to do this to reduce the number of woke people?
Don't put a mindless tool of corporations in the white house; vote ChatGPT for 2024!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday April 17, @07:25PM
No doubt China or any other hostile state could use significant disruption of their network connected products as a military advantage (example: immediately prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine US advisors were rumored to be actively mitigating anticipated Russian cyber attacks on the Ukrainian train network, preventing mass strandings (and casualties) of civilians cut off from evacuation during the invasion.)
However, I wouldn't call significant disruption of thousands or millions of citizens' (both civilian and military) vehicles as a prelude to an attack, that step is an attack in and of itself.
Meanwhile, how many remote interfaces to US (and other) water, power, sewage, transport infrastructure, etc. industrial control systems are "secured" with passwords like "Assword1"?
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 18, @01:09AM
Low. Because they don't want too many US voters going "Fuck it! Nuke China!". Especially with US presidents who have a significant chance of actually launching nukes.
Whereas China might do that as revenge if the US launches nukes at China, and they launch their retaliatory nukes.
China does evil stuff but they tend to be more rational evil.
The US does evil stuff that often doesn't seem to benefit the US (usually doesn't benefit the US citizens, sometimes doesn't seem to even benefit the US elite much e.g. mainly benefits Israel).
What China might do is spy to try to gain an advantage. If you destroy/damage/disrupt stuff you often only get to do it once. Whereas if you just spy, you can do the disruption elsewhere (e.g. win deals/contracts that you otherwise won't win).
(Score: 2) by epitaxial on Wednesday April 17, @08:47PM (1 child)
People voted with their wallets and want the cheapest goods possible. China is the country that delivers on those cheap goods. We're going to see a shift in vehicles soon enough when they start selling cars at half the price of US companies. The cheapest new car you can buy is a Mitsubishi Mirage and it's $17,000. Before all the boomers get riled up, run your figures through the inflation calculator https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl [bls.gov] before replying.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by mcgrew on Friday April 19, @06:08PM
Before all the boomers get riled up, run your figures through the inflation calculator
I think we boomers are quite a bit more acquainted with inflation than you ignorant children, son. In the 1960s the minimum wage bought ten McDonald's hamburgers. Those ten burgers are now $24.90. The US government has legalized wage theft by refusing to raise the minimum wage when there is inflation.
When I was a kid, there were no homeless and no working poor. Only single parents needed child care. But wage theft was illegal and employers were forced to pay a living wage.
In the 1980s, mortgages were up to 20%.
You kids don't know jack shit about inflation.
Poe's Law [nooze.org] has nothing to do with Edgar Allen Poetry
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Friday April 19, @06:00PM
But this just seems like plain old fashioned protectionist BS.
How can you compete against a company supported financially by a superpower? That's the only justification for a tariff I can see. In this case, it fits.
The security bullshit is paranoia.
Poe's Law [nooze.org] has nothing to do with Edgar Allen Poetry