An American power company announced this week that it disconnected Chinese-manufactured batteries from Camp Lejeune after lawmakers raised concerns to the Pentagon about security.
On Friday, Duke Energy told Military.com that it disconnected the lithium batteries produced by the company CATL from the North Carolina installation’s energy infrastructure after “some concerns about this project” were raised — mostly by Republican lawmakers, but co-signed by at least one Democrat as well.
Earlier this month, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., penned a letter with nearly 30 other lawmakers addressed to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin asking the Pentagon to “immediately reverse the decision to install CATL batteries at Camp Lejeune, as well as conduct a full assessment on all installations.”
Read Next: Army Set to Retire Online Training System, Leaving Soldiers with 2-Week Gap in Access
Chinese infrastructure in the U.S. has come under intense scrutiny by lawmakers, experts and defense officials over concerns that Beijing-backed systems might contain spyware or other means to conduct espionage on America.
Within a week, Duke Energy said it had disconnected the batteries over those concerns, though it also said in a statement that the batteries were not connected to Lejeune’s systems or networks and that it made the change due to concerns from inside the Capital Beltway.
“In safeguarding our national security, decisive actions must be…