WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) joined U.S. Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) and other members of Congress in sending a letter to Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick urging the department to prohibit TP-Link equipment sales. This state-sponsored networking equipment company has deep ties to the Chinese Communist Party and poses a clear present danger to American national security.
“TP-Link’s pricing practices have triggered a Department of Justice criminal antitrust probe. TP-Link’s predatory pricing, coupled with its circumvention of tariffs, imminently threatens U.S. competition in a market critical to our national security. TP-Link has rapidly captured nearly 60 percent of the U.S. retail router and Wi-Fi system market while expanding the CCP’s cyber arsenal. The CCP uses SOHO equipment for ongoing espionage and targeting of critical infrastructure to pre-position itself for destructive attacks on Americans and communication channels with our allies,” wrote the members of Congress.
Joining Sens. Tuberville and Cotton are U.S. Sens. John Barrasso (R-WY), Ted Budd (R-NC), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Jim Justice (R-WV), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Bernie Moreno (R-OH), Pete Ricketts (R-NE), Jim Risch (R-ID), Eric Schmitt (R-MO), and Rick Scott (R-FL). Four U.S. Representatives also joined the letter.
Full text of the letter can be read below or here.
“Dear Secretary Lutnick,
We write in support of the Commerce Department’s investigation of TP-Link, a state-sponsored networking equipment company, and urge you to take swift action to prohibit further sales of TP-Link networking products in the United States. TP-Link’s deep ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), use of predatory pricing to eliminate trusted U.S. alternatives, and role in embedding foreign surveillance and destructive capabilities into our networks render it a clear and present danger.
Chinese state actors have exploited TP-Link small and home office (SOHO) networking devices — including Wi-Fi routers, cellular gateways, and mobile hotspots — to wage cyber-attacks in the United States.CCP agents commonly exploit SOHO routers because those systems have ideal bandwidth and computing power for sustained cyber activities but lack additional layers of security common in enterprise networks. TP-Link is also subject to China’s National Security Law, giving the CCP access to U.S. systems before American authorities know a vulnerability exists. In fact, TP-Link is the only router company that refuses to engage in industry efforts to remediate Chinese state-sponsored botnets.
TP-Link’s pricing practices have triggered a Department of Justice criminal antitrust probe. TP-Link’s predatory pricing, coupled with its circumvention of tariffs, imminently threatens U.S. competition in a market critical to our national security. TP-Link has rapidly captured nearly 60 percent of the U.S. retail router and Wi-Fi system market while expanding the CCP’s cyber arsenal. The CCP uses SOHO equipment for ongoing espionage and targeting of critical infrastructure to pre-position itself for destructive attacks on Americans and communication channels with our allies.
For these reasons, Commerce should immediately prohibit future sales of TP-Link SOHO networking equipment in the United States. Each day we fail to act, the CCP wins while American competitors suffer, and American security remains at risk.
We thank you for your ongoing work to secure and safeguard America’s Information and Communications Technology and Services supply chain. This work is critical to our national security, and we commend President Trump’s Executive Order 13873 to allow the Commerce Department to prohibit transactions in our country that pose unacceptable risk to American national security.
Sincerely,”
Senator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans’ Affairs, HELP and Aging Committees.
###
