A bipartisan group of 23 lawmakers is urging the Trump administration to investigate TP-Link Technologies and its affiliates over potential national security risks tied to Chinese Communist Party influence.
According to the New York Post, the concern centers on TP-Link products quietly sold on Army, Air Force, and Navy exchanges, as well as widely available online.
“Open-source information indicates that TP-Link represents a serious and present danger to U.S. ICTS [Information and communications technology] security,” the lawmakers wrote in a Thursday letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), who led the letter, emphasized the risk of Chinese infiltration. “China will use any way to infiltrate us, and we must ensure they cannot access our homeland or military bases,” she told The Post.
Ernst likened the situation to previous concerns over Huawei Technologies, calling on the administration to determine if TP-Link could be “a trojan horse compromising our national security.”
TP-Link, headquartered in Shenzhen, China, manufactures Wi-Fi routers, smart cameras, baby monitors, smart plugs, and other connected devices.
While it has a smaller U.S. headquarters in Irvine, California, Chinese laws like the National Intelligence Law of 2017 require organizations and citizens to cooperate with state intelligence work, raising concerns that backdoors could be inserted into equipment.
“These products are used by the U.S. military and sold on Amazon,” Rep. Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa) said. “This is yet another backdoor for the CCP to track or exploit Americans — and closing it should be a no-brainer in an era when cyberwarfare defines the threats we face.”
TP-Link has been included in several government contracts, including a $174,195 award from the Department of War four years ago. Its products are also widely sold by retailers such as Walmart and Amazon, where items like Wi-Fi extenders and routers have topped sales charts.
A TP-Link spokesperson strongly denied the allegations.
“TP-Link products do not present national security risks to the United States,” the spokesperson said. “Neither the Chinese government nor the CCP exercises any form of ownership or control over TP-Link, its products, or its user data. TP-Link’s founder and CEO, Jeffrey Chao, resides in Irvine, CA, and is not and never has been a member of the CCP.”
The company added that U.S. data is stored on Amazon Web Services infrastructure in Virginia and that its operations are designed to prevent foreign interference.
The lawmakers are pressing the Commerce Department to evaluate potential national security risks posed by TP-Link and to report their findings by Nov. 30.
