It will also consider regulations to address those risks,which could lead tointernet-connected Chinese cars and trucks,including electric vehicles,being prevented from entering the US auto market.

In recent years,China has drastically scaled up its production ofelectric vehicles. Last year,BYD – the Chinese company backed by US investment billionaire Warren Buffett –passed Elon Musk’s Tesla as the world’s top-selling electric carmaker.

The company now has assembly lines across the globe – including Brazil,Thailand,and Hungary – and is also rapidly expanding exports to Europe.

The Biden administration has been trying to reduce the US auto industry’s reliance on China,including by using tax credits to encourage a shift away from Chinese suppliers and to boost local electric vehicle sales.

The president’s latest actions emerged after conversations with Detroit car manufacturers and union officials from the United Automobile Workers,whom the president joined on a picket line last year while the group was on strike.

During those discussions,Biden was warned about the restrictions the US car sector faced selling vehicles and software in China.

“China imposes restrictions on American autos and other foreign autos operating in China,” he said today. “Why should connected vehicles from China be allowed to operate in our country without safeguards?”

Biden’s latest push to safeguard local carmakers and drivers came after the administration announced last week it would invest more than $US20 billion ($30 billion) in maritime security amid concerns that China-built cranes with advanced software were posing a major risk on US ports.

Senior administration officials cited data suggesting that 80 per cent of the cranes moving trade at US ports are made in China and use Chinese software,leading to concerns that they could be used to spy.

Intelligence chiefs – including FBI director Christopher Wray and Australian Security Intelligence Organisation director-generalMike Burgess – have also been warning for months about China’s espionage efforts more broadly,which they say is so sophisticated it requires a global response.

“The Chinese government are engaged in the most sustained,sophisticated and scaled theft of intellectual property and expertise in human history,” Burgess said during a Five Eyes summit in California last year.

“That behaviour must be called out and must be addressed.”

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