by Steve Milloy, E&E Legal Senior Policy Fellow and Junkscience.com Founder
As Appearing on The Daily Caller
I recently warned about the need to assess our vulnerability to Communist China in order to expedite the decoupling of our economy and society from this dangerous rival as soon as possible. A host of developments since that column underscore the urgency of this imperative.
Norway just discovered that Chinese-made buses contain “kill switches” that allow them to be remotely controlled and deactivated. The United Kingdom will now investigate its Chinese-made buses in search of the switches. Chinese buses are also used in Denmark. In fact, China makes about 95 percent of electric buses. Why would the bus maker need to be able to control the buses from China? Is it to stop people in their tracks on some special day of China’s choosing?
Reuters reported this week that China will export a record 24% more battery storage systems for electric vehicles and power grids in 2025, a large portion of which go to Germany and the U.S. No one seems to remember that Duke Energy had to remove Chinese-made batteries from the U.S. Marine base at Camp LeJeune because they had devices that could communicate with China.
The bipartisan U.S.-China Economic Security Review Commission warned about this sort of grid sabotage this week. “The commission also urged lawmakers to provide new funding to modernize the U.S. electrical grid and to ban the widespread use of Chinese-made energy storage systems with remote monitoring capabilities, warning they might be susceptible to infiltration and exploitation,” reported the Washington Post.
