WASHINGTON, United States — The United States is widening restrictions on Chinese technology and other foreign-made equipment, extending national-security controls from connected cars and drones to routers, power equipment, and increasingly sophisticated robots.
The measures are unfolding as China commands a growing share of industries that are becoming central to transportation, manufacturing, energy, and automation.
At the same time, American companies, universities, and laboratories remain dependent on Chinese components and finished products that can be difficult or costly to replace.
That tension is becoming more visible as Washington expands the range of products subject to restrictions.
A 2026 study by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, using the latest comparable international data from 2022, found that China accounted for 24.9 per cent of output across 10 advanced industries and led seven of them, including machinery, electrical equipment, motor vehicles, computers and electronics, chemicals, basic metals, and fabricated metals.
The United States accounted for 22.3 per cent of the combined output.
China’s position is particularly pronounced in electric vehicles.
Chinese manufacturers supplied about 60 per cent of electric cars sold worldwide in 2025, according to the International Energy Agency.
European and North American manufacturers each supplied roughly 15 per cent.
Washington Expands Its Technology Controls
The restrictions now extend well beyond traditional telecommunications equipment.
In July, the Federal Communications Commission added foreign-produced advanced robotic devices and certain power inverters to its Covered List, which identifies equipment that federal authorities have determined presents unacceptable national-security or public-safety risks.
The robotics category includes autonomous mobile machines, humanoid robots, quadrupeds, and other ground-based systems meeting specified weight, connectivity, sensor, and autonomous-operation requirements.
New equipment in the category generally cannot receive the FCC authorisation required for sale or importation in the United States unless it receives conditional approval from the Department of War.
Models authorised before the July decision can continue to be sold under the existing rules.
The FCC had already placed foreign-produced routers on the list in March after an interagency national-security assessment concluded that such equipment could create cybersecurity and supply-chain vulnerabilities.
Foreign-produced unmanned aircraft systems and critical drone components had previously been subjected to similar controls, although exemptions are available for approved products.
The recent FCC measures are not written exclusively against China: some apply broadly to foreign-produced equipment.
Their expansion, however, coincides with a much wider set of American policies aimed specifically at reducing reliance on Chinese technology.
Connected vehicles are one example.
Commerce Department rules taking effect for the 2027 model year prohibit certain passenger vehicles containing communications or automated-driving software linked to China or Russia.
Restrictions on covered communications hardware are scheduled to follow later. The department has said such systems could expose sensitive information or permit remote interference with vehicles.
Drones Face New Tariffs
The Trump administration has also turned to tariffs as it seeks to expand domestic drone production.
On Thursday, September 3, 2026, additional tariffs took effect on imported unmanned aircraft systems and components following a national-security investigation by the Commerce Department.
President Donald Trump’s proclamation imposed a 100 per cent additional tariff on certain larger drones, drones with thermal-imaging capabilities, specified docking stations, and critical components.
Certain smaller drones and other components face a 25 per cent tariff.
The administration said foreign dependence left the United States vulnerable to disruptions in the supply of motors, batteries, electronic speed controllers, and other components needed for commercial and military drones.
The White House has presented the measures as part of an effort to develop a larger American manufacturing base for strategically important equipment.
American Companies Still Rely on Chinese Parts
For some businesses, replacing Chinese supply chains is proving more complicated than changing suppliers.
Chef Robotics, a San Francisco company that builds robotic systems for food manufacturers, is among the American firms that have sourced important components from China.
Its founder, Rajat Bhageria, told CNN that the company had originally focused on finding the strongest components at the lowest price. More recently, customers and investors have begun asking why the business continues to use foreign-made parts.
The question confronting companies like Chef Robotics is whether domestic or allied suppliers can provide comparable technology at the necessary scale and cost.
China’s manufacturing advantage is not confined to one sector.
The ITIF analysis found that it produced 38.5 per cent of the world’s electrical equipment output in 2022 and 33.4 per cent of machinery and equipment, compared with substantially smaller shares for the United States.
Chinese companies have also expanded rapidly overseas.
The country exported 2.6 million electric vehicles worth a record $69.6 billion in 2025, reaching more than 150 countries and territories, according to Reuters.
Research Institutions Face the Same Problem
The transition is also affecting universities and engineering laboratories that use relatively inexpensive Chinese robots and drones for teaching and experimentation.
Sayan Mitra, an engineering professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, told CNN that his university uses Chinese-made robotic arms, drones, vehicles, and humanoid systems.
He estimated that replacing some Chinese humanoid robots with American alternatives could cost as much as 10 times more, while equivalent replacements for some equipment may not yet be readily available.
Such concerns do not establish whether the national-security restrictions are warranted, but they illustrate the practical costs involved when a supply chain has become concentrated in another country.
The FCC has created conditional-approval procedures allowing some foreign robotic systems, routers, and drones to remain available when national-security agencies determine they do not present unacceptable risks.
Several products have already received such exemptions.
China and the U.S. Remain Economically Entwined
The technology restrictions are advancing alongside continued trade between the world’s two largest economies.
Washington and Beijing agreed in September to consider more favourable tariff treatment for $30 billion each in selected non-sensitive goods under a new U.S.-China Board of Trade.
The arrangement distinguishes products considered suitable for ordinary commerce from technologies that American officials regard as strategically sensitive.
At the same time, the United States has continued examining Chinese industrial practices and its own dependence on foreign supply chains.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative opened investigations this year into what it described as structural excess manufacturing capacity in China and several other economies.
China has objected to a number of American technology and trade restrictions, describing them as discriminatory or protectionist, and has responded in some cases with export controls and restrictions of its own.
For American manufacturers, the immediate challenge is less abstract: products that were once selected primarily on price, quality, and availability are increasingly being assessed according to where they were made, who controls the supplier, what data they collect, and whether regulators will permit their continued use.
The result is an industrial transition whose costs will depend in part on how quickly the United States and its partners can develop alternative suppliers for technologies in which Chinese manufacturers have already achieved substantial scale.
