An NEV manufacturing line in Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality Photo: VCG The US Republican Senator Bernie Moreno claimed on Tuesday that he will introduce legislation next month to expand an existing US government ban on Chinese automakers to more strictly forbid Chinese hardware, software and even partnerships from entering the American market, according to Reuters' report. A Chinese expert said the move reflects a broader tendency among some US officials to stretch the concept of so-called national security as a political maneuver. The proposal would be extremely difficult to implement in practice, as today's global automotive supply chain is deeply interconnected, the experts said. Previously, the Biden administration imposed a sweeping regulation that effectively bans all Chinese automakers from selling passenger vehicles in the US in January 2025, citing "national security" concerns about the ability of vehicles to collect sensitive data on American owners, said the report. Speaking at an Automotive Forum event ahead of the New York Auto Show, Moreno claimed his proposed legislation would go further than the ban on imports, and would seal off the US so "there's never a scenario where a Chinese automobile will enter our market, that's hardware, that's software, that's partnerships." On a further note, the US senator urged the Latin America, Mexico, Canada and Europe, to follow suit. The latest move by the US senator has drawn attention from some Chinese trade analysts, warning that such a politically motivated proposal runs counter to market principles and would be very difficult to implement. "By citing so-called national security concerns, the US is essentially overstretching the concept of security and instrumentalizing economic and trade issues... Such an approach lacks sufficient evidence and deviates from the fundamental principles of market competition," Zhou Mi, a senior research fellow at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and