A key congressional committee on China is urging the government to launch an investigation into Chinese robotics firm Unitree. The House Select Committee on the CCP sent a letter today to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, and FCC Chairman Brendan Carr citing a “growing national security threat,” Pirate Wires has learned.

Unitree, known for canine and humanoid robots that display highly sophisticated movement, appears to be a key component to China’s national robotics strategy.

This comes amid broader concerns about China’s robotics program, and vulnerabilities it may be exploiting inside the US.

According to the House Select Committee letter, Unitree robots come pre-installed with a covert backdoor called CloudSail that connects to servers in China, allowing “anyone with access to the API key [to] tunnel into a robot, stream video, or access systems via SSH — using default credentials.” The robots record voice data using iFlytek, a company sanctioned by the U.S. for mass surveillance, and Unitree’s own privacy policy confirms all user data is stored in the PRC, where it is subject to China’s intelligence and cybersecurity laws.

As a result of waivers granted to the company by the US, the letter states that Unitree robots are currently able to operate in American institutions, including prisons, police forces and military sites in the US.

The House Select Committee letter also warns that current FCC authorizations allow Unitree products to be integrated into US telecom networks, and that “[one] commercial vendor alone plans to deploy 100 units in a state prison system, ultimately targeting 1,000 installations.

The letter, by Select Committee Chairman John Moolenaar (R-MI) and Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), cites Unitree’s participation in military-civil fusion programs, investment by the PRC into the company, and its contributions to defense research as factors requiring an investigation into the company.

“The fact that PLA-connected robots are already operating in American institutions, like the Department of the Army and state prison systems, should be a wake-up call,” a committee spokesperson told Pirate Wires. “These machines are Trojan horses with cameras. Every single member of the Committee — Republicans and Democrats alike — signed this letter because we see the risk clearly: this is not just about robotics, it’s about Beijing quietly plugging into our critical systems. We need urgent action to blacklist and ban Unitree from further deployment in the U.S. before it’s too late.”

The letter requests that Unitree be placed on the Defense Department’s 1260H list of Chinese military companies, the Commerce Department’s Covered List and the FCC’s Entity list. Placement on these lists would heavily restrict Unitree’s ability to secure US government contracts, gain access to capital, and integrate into American infrastructure, including telecom.

Unitree robots have been used and tested by the U.S. Marine Corps. Unitree’s website identifies MIT, Stanford, Yale, and Carnegie Mellon as partners and customers, while other leading U.S. research institutions, including University of California, Berkeley and University of Southern California, have acquired Unitree quadrupeds.

Beijing has prioritized robotics as part of a broader tech-based national strategy fusing civilian and military activities. This strategy includes initiatives like Made in China 2025 and the Robotics+ Action Plan that “prioritize dual-use technology, automation, and intelligent systems to support military modernization,” Reps. Moolenaar and Krishnamoorthi wrote.

Unitree operates from the Hangzhou High-Tech Zone, a centerpiece of Beijing’s military-civilian fusion strategy. Alongside DeepSeek, the firm is considered one of Hangzhou’s “six little dragons” — startups aiming to challenge US dominance in areas of tech critical to national security, like AI, robotics, semiconductors, and quantum computing.

Though Unitree emphasizes its non-military nature, billing itself as a “civilian robot manufacturer,” the letter accuses the company of having direct ties to the PLA. This includes recent participation in joint PLA-Cambodia military exercises, where the company’s B1 quadrupedal robot was outfitted with an assault rifle, which Chinese state TV showed it firing during the exercises.

Footage from the exercise also showed a Chinese soldier testing the company’s Go2 robot dog. Unitree denies selling its robots to the PLA.

The letter calls attention to a pre-installed backdoor in Unitree robots connected to servers in China that would allow anyone with the API key to “tunnel into a robot, stream video or access systems via SSH [Secure Shell Protocol].”

In February, the company’s CEO Xingxing Wang participated in a closed-door meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, with Wang reportedly seated in a “top-ranking position” at the meeting.

The Committee’s letter can be read in full here.

— Ashley Rindsberg