The Alliance for Automotive Innovation has urged top U.S. congressional leaders to enact a permanent ban on the sale, import and manufacture of Chinese connected vehicles, hardware and software before the 119th Congress concludes in January. In a Thursday letter, AAI President John Bozzella told Senate Majority Leader John Thune, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Speaker Mike Johnson and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries that China’s manufacturing industry is rooted in unfair trade, subsidies, intellectual property theft and surveillance. He said Chinese automakers are dumping subsidized vehicles with connected software and hardware worldwide and capturing market share in Europe, Australia, Southeast Asia, Mexico and South America, a pattern that has not yet taken hold inside the United States. The push aligns with July Senate Commerce Committee legislation that would bar companies with more than 15 percent Chinese ownership from selling vehicles in the U.S., a threshold that would block Mercedes-Benz because Chinese investors hold nearly 20 percent of the German automaker. In the House, Reps. Debbie Dingell and John Moolenaar have introduced the Connected Vehicle Security Act of 2026, which has 72 additional bipartisan co-sponsors. Bozzella said enacting a permanent ban in the current Congress would send a clear bipartisan national security response to China’s strategy to dominate global automotive manufacturing. Competitive pressure is also rising through third-country access, including a January arrangement allowing Geely Auto Group to sell tens of thousands of electric vehicles annually in Canada as tariffs fall from 100% to 6%.