CHAD WOLF: Congress has a chance to stop China from turning your car into a Chinese spy

Recent reporting about a British naval drone unknowingly sending data to China offers an urgent warning to policymakers in the United States.

During a routine cybersecurity assessment, the U.K.

Ministry of Defence exposed a serious breach.

It found that a component in its naval drones was secretly transmitting data to China.

The drone was British.

The hidden vulnerability was not.

CHINESE DRONE MONOPOLY PUT ON NOTICE AMID CONCERNS OVER CCP SPYING: 'STRATEGIC MISTAKE' To be clear, this is part of Beijing’s playbook .

It uses intellectual-property theft, cyberespionage and industrial policy to become indispensable to Western supply chains and then exploits that access to collect intelligence and create vulnerabilities it can use against its adversaries.

Our standard response has been to restrict Chinese technology only after the risks become impossible to ignore, often spending billions of dollars to rip and replace equipment already embedded in American networks and infrastructure.

CHINESE ESPIONAGE STEALS $600 BILLION FROM US FIRMS YEARLY.

IT’S TIME FOR GOVERNMENT TO ACT Now, Beijing has its sights on conducting widespread espionage and sabotage in another sector – automobiles.

But this time, America has the opportunity to act before it’s too late.

China is now the world’s largest vehicle exporter, and Chinese companies are major players not only in electric vehicles but in the batteries, software, sensors and connected technologies critical to modern cars.

Chinese automakers are using a variety of strategies to enter U.S. markets, and China’s rise as an automotive power presents an obvious challenge for American manufacturers.