At a think tank event yesterday, Assistant Secretary of State Todd Robinson discussed Chinese scanning equipment being used in operations at the Mexico-U.S. border, and emphasized the Biden administration's security and economic concerns with such a practice.

A new report from a Washington D.C.-based think tank examines federal and state procurement of tech equipment, and concludes that state-level purchases of Chinese equipment are a significant problem, and that better coordination of federal and state policies is needed to address it.

We reported last month that some states in the United States have adopted rules that prohibit state government purchases from companies owned or operated by the Chinese government. The potential scope of the companies covered by this restriction is unclear at this point, but some experts have put forward broad

U.S. state level laws that prohibit purchases from companies owned or operated by the Chinese government may start proliferating, as several states have moved forward with their laws and a national conservative organization is pushing them. An example from earlier this year is legislation enacted in the state of

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has announced several actions related to the activities of Chinese companies in Florida, including on data practices and land purchases.

A group of Republican members of Congress have raised concerns that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) "is potentially using taxpayer dollars to purchase solar panels and components from China ... to rebuild the U.S. Virgin Islands’ (USVI) energy grid."

The U.S. Justice Department has reached a settlement in a case involving alleged breaches of the Buy American Act, with Chinese manufactured goods used instead of American ones.