Republican and Democratic members of the House Select Committee on China introduced the GUARD Act (Guarding the U.S. Against Adversarial Robotics Dominance) on June 3, directing national security agencies to review humanoid and quadruped robots made by China and other adversary nations. Products found to pose unacceptable risks would be placed on the FCC’s Covered List — the same mechanism used to restrict Huawei and ZTE — barring their importation into the US. Any robot not reviewed within one year would be automatically added to the list. Lead sponsor Rep. John Moolenaar (R-MI) cited backdoors enabling espionage, state subsidies allowing Chinese firms to undercut US competitors, and Chinese robotics companies’ ties to the People’s Liberation Army; Unitree was specifically named as a firm warranting Pentagon and Commerce Department watchlist designations. Co-sponsors include Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-CA) and Rep. Jennifer McClellan (D-VA), and the bill drew endorsements from Agility Robotics, AUVSI, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, and the Hudson Institute.
The legislation follows a March 2026 House Homeland Security Committee hearing on Chinese AI and robotics threats, where testimony laid bare the competitive gap the bill is partly designed to close: Scale AI’s Max Finkel testified that Chinese companies hold roughly 90% of the commercial robotics AI data market at production costs 60% below US rivals; Omdia data cited in the same proceedings showed Chinese companies accounted for 90% of global humanoid robot shipments in 2025; and at CES 2026, Chinese companies displaying humanoid robots outnumbered US exhibitors approximately five to one. China’s Science and Technology Daily dismissed the hearing and resulting legislation as competitive self-interest in security’s clothing, arguing that US industry leaders “are lobbying Congress to exclude Chinese technology from the market because they cannot compete on merit” — rather than out of genuine national security concern.