A congressional advisory panel says the purchase of internet-linked devices manufactured in China leaves the United States vulnerable to security breaches that could put critical infrastructure at risk.
The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission issued the warning Wednesday in a report focused on the increasing use of the internet in household appliances. It says China's push to dominate the so-called internet of things creates "enormous'' privacy and security risks to the United States.
China's bid to dominate in the high-tech industry by 2025 already is a sore point with Washington and a contributing factor in trade tensions that have seen the world's two largest economies slap billions of dollars in punitive tariffs on each other's products this year.
The U.S. also has had concerns about state-backed cyber theft of corporate secrets, something China agreed to stop in 2015.
