Editor’s note: This piece has been edited to clarify that Chinese company Tencent does not own a controlling stake in Epic Games.
After the U.S. ban on Chinese-owned social media company TikTok, the White House and Congress should ban four additional Chinese or China-connected companies, and others like them.
The U.S. government and Department of Defense already bans official use of some of these entities because of their inherent threat to national security, and each could have a direct impact on a potential war against the U.S. and its allies.
Holosun (Military-Optics)
Holosun is a firearms accessories importer with connections to Chinese company Huanic, the military-industrial cluster in Xi’an, the People’s Liberation Army, and the People’s Armed Police. It specializes in affordable optics known as red dots, which make it easier to acquire and engage targets. Profits from the U.S. civilian market, which is the largest in the world, at least indirectly subsidize the Chinese defense industry.
In 2024 Holosun released a new digital thermal scope, imported from Hexian Tech, which is sited outside another military-industrial cluster near Nanjing. Currently, the U.S. is the leader in analog night vision, which has revolutionized warfare, and since 1989 the U.S. has “owned the night”. Countries like China and Russia have struggled to replicate the technology, resulting in a shift to digital cameras and thermal imaging to compensate.
Digital thermal would be critical to any invasion of Taiwan, allowing forces with night vision or similar capabilities to dominate adversaries. In Afghanistan, this resulted in ten-to-one kill ratios. Allowing Holosun to continue selling in the U.S., and selling thermal sights especially, will help China in a potential invasion of Taiwan.
Holosun may already be in violation of Export Administration Regulations for weapons development and should be stopped by the Department of Commerce under the International Traffic in Arms Regulation.
DJI (Drones-Cameras)
Chinese drones are among the most popular, with market share as high as 90 percent. And Chinese-owned drone company DJI is the leading commercial drone company in the world.
Since 2018, the Department of Defense has banned official use and purchase of commercial off-the-shelf drones on the grounds that “systems produced by [DJI] pose potential threats to national security.” Congress has since banned the military from purchasing drones specifically from China.
But supposedly private and civilian use is not benign either. Modern computing and algorithms enable China to analyze and fuse cameras and other data for domestic monitoring and its police state. This is why, for example, Hikvision cameras are already on the Department of Commerce’s Entity List, which identifies high-risk foreign entities, and are banned by the Federal Communications Commission.
Additionally, low-cost Chinese drones are currently used in Ukraine for observation and dropping payloads, such as grenades, mortars, and caltrops, and have damaged and destroyed aircraft. In March 2024, a swarm of drones was reported near Langley AFB, home of the F-22 Raptor.
One bill currently under consideration, the Countering CCP Drones Act, would use the power of the Federal Communications Commission to effectively ban the use of DJI drones on U.S. communications infrastructure.
Lenovo (Hardware)
In 2015 Chinese computer hardware company Lenovo acquired IBM Servers. Although government officials had previously approved that acquisition based on promises that IBM would continue to service all government devices, it sent the U.S. Navy scrambling in an attempt to replace the servers on its Aegis destroyers, based on “security concerns” at the Department of Homeland Security.
An audit in 2019 showed that the Department of Defense keeps purchasing Chinese products such as laptops, cameras, and printers that are identified as security risks, and will likely do so “right up until the point that Congress outlaws purchases from the companies.”
As recently as 2023, Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), Chairman of the Select Committee on the CCP, identified that the U.S. Navy Exchange continues to sell personal computers in its on base stores.
This demonstrates that information and awareness are not enough, and even the U.S. government and professionals repeatedly fail, and why Americans need consumer protection from the CCP.
Epic Games – Unreal 5 (Software)
Chinese entertainment conglomerate Tencent holds a 35 percent stake in Epic Games. In addition to popular in-house video games, Epic is the developer of the Unreal graphics engine, which is also licensed to others, including half of the largest video games in the industry.
Unreal 5 could also pose a security risk to the Department of Defense. In September 2023, Boeing announced that it was using Unreal 5 in the modernization of the B-52J nuclear bomber. At a minimum, this demonstrates poor decisionmaking, and the inherent threat that even one of the largest defense contractors accidently, if not maliciously, chose to use software from a company with significant Chinese ownership on any aspect of the nuclear triad.
Ryan Quinn is a veteran, has worked at the Pentagon, and has experience in defense, intelligence, and foreign policy.