The Trump administration is banning the import of new foreign-made humanoid robots, robot dogs, and power inverters, citing an “unacceptable” threat to national security. The move largely affects imports from China, which currently has the vast majority of the global market share.
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced the ban on Tuesday, saying that devices made overseas could be remotely controlled or used for surveillance by foreign governments, or otherwise used in cyberattacks.
The FCC said that exceptions would be granted if the government finds that a device does not pose a risk to U.S. national security.
The U.S. government has long accused China of hacking into U.S. businesses to steal data and preparing to launch future cyberattacks for its own military gains, such as an anticipated invasion of Taiwan. But the U.S. has also long warned that the risk of Chinese ownership alone could allow Beijing to force a company to spy on Americans or remotely tamper with their products. The U.S. government has similar legal powers.
Humanoid robots, the class of robots that move similarly to humans, are far from mainstream and are still in early development. There were around 15,000 humanoid robots shipped worldwide in 2025, with each of China’s two largest robot makers accounting for the majority of those shipments.
Power inverters are far more commonly used in U.S. households to connect solar and other renewable energy systems to the wider power grid. Existing devices in homes and installations are unaffected by the ban, the FCC said.
The ban is the latest in a series of actions taken by the U.S. government against China in recent years, including a U.S. government ban on TikTok that forced it into the hands of U.S. investors, plus bans on a broad swath of foreign-made consumer routers, and Chinese surveillance equipment makers Hikvision and Dahua, which have been linked to human rights abuses.
Beijing rebuffed the FCC’s ban, with a Foreign Ministry spokesperson quoted by the Associated Press as saying that China will use “all measures necessary” to protect its businesses.
Chinese president Xi Jinping is expected to meet President Donald Trump in Washington, D.C., during a planned state visit in September.
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