A leading brand of personal computers that is sold in Navy Exchange stores is coming under fire by a House panel focused on competition with China.
In a letter to the Navy Exchange Service Command released Thursday, House China Committee Chairman Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., called for “immediate action” to pull Lenovo products from stores. Gallagher pointed to past regulatory scrutiny of the company and argued the computers pose a cybersecurity risk because the largest single shareholder is a Chinese entity.
“The exchange should not be selling Lenovo products to U.S. service members, let alone incentivizing such purchases with tax-free, discounted prices,” Gallagher wrote in the letter to Navy Exchange Service Command CEO Robert Bianchi.
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“Doing so creates a major cybersecurity threat and undermines the U.S. Department of Defense’s 2023 Cyber Strategy, which commits to ‘foster[ing] a culture of cybersecurity and cyber awareness,'” Gallagher added.
An exchange spokesperson did not immediately respond to Military.com’s request for comment about the letter.
The letter is the latest example of lawmakers expressing concern over Chinese products in military exchanges. The House’s version of this year’s annual defense policy bill includes a provision to ban the sale of items manufactured, assembled or imported from China at…
