New polling obtained by Breitbart News revealed that the majority of American voters are concerned about Chinese-backed ownership of major U.S. appliance brands, and support requiring clear consumer disclosures when such brands are owned by Chinese backed-companies.
The nationwide survey of 1,000 likely general election voters, conducted in November by the Protecting America Initiative (PAI), found that people had “relatively limited” awareness about ownership structures that mislead the public into believing appliances in their homes are American-owned.
To many consumers, General Electric (GE) sounds like an all-American brand. However, GE Appliances was purchased by Haier Group, based in Qingdao, China, in 2016. It has been under Chinese Communist Party (CCP) control since.
Hisense and Midea, two other Chinese-owned appliance makers, are also expanding “rapidly” across the American market.
Under CCP rule, Chinese companies are required to hand over data to the CCP on request — meaning that any Chinese companies operating in the U.S. could be forced to act as agents of foreign communists.
Just 44 percent of respondents said they knew about these ownership structures prior to taking the survey, while 43 percent said they had no idea and 13 percent were unsure.
Most of the respondents, made up of an equal portion of Republicans and Democrats with 20 percent being independents, said they are concerned that Chinese-owned appliances could share personal data with the Chinese government. Two-thirds said they are concerned, while nearly one in three respondents are “very” concerned.
These concerns have been raised by PAI as other foreign companies posing as American-owned pour millions of dollars into lobbying efforts in Washington, D.C.
While those who identify as Republicans, conservatives, or supporters of President Donald Trump expressed the highest concern with the issue, over half of Democrats respondents were also concerned.
Only 16 percent of respondents said they are opposed to requiring disclosures when appliances are backed by the CCP, with a wide majority saying they would be in favor of it — meaning that voters who are aware of this issue overwhelmingly want action.
In August, Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) introduced the Preventing Remote Operations by Threatening Entities on Critical Technology (PROTECT) for the Grid Act, a bill directing the U.S. Department of Commerce to investigate the extent of CCP-linked technology inside U.S. infrastructure.
The legislation would also codify the 2019 Trump Executive Order 13873, which empowers the Secretary of Commerce to restrict or ban technology from foreign companies if they are found to be a national security threat.
“We cannot forget the existential threat that the Chinese Communist Party poses to our national security and American citizens,” the senator said at the time. “The CCP uses every tool at its disposal to infiltrate our markets, our government, and our families’ everyday lives through smart products designed with a built-in backdoor for China to spy on them and access our power grids.”
“The risk this access poses cannot be understated – it means Communist China could flip a digital switch and plunge parts of America into chaos,” Scott continued. “My Protect the Grid Act calls for an investigation into China’s influence through these items and how we can work to off their access, secure our grid, and stop a foreign dictatorship from holding American citizens hostage through their own appliances.”
2025_12.16_PAI-Memo (1) by Breitbart News
Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.
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