Republican representative John Moolenaar and Democratic representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, who lead the US house select committee on China, requested a commerce department probe in a Tuesday letter seen by Reuters.
According to research firm IDC, TP-Link, which focuses on the consumer market, is the top seller of Wi-Fi routers internationally by unit volume.
In calling for an investigation, the US legislators cited known vulnerabilities in TP-Link firmware and instances of its routers being exploited to target government officials in European countries.
We request that commerce verify the threat posed by [China-affiliated small office/home office] routers -particularly those offered by the worlds largest manufacturer, TP-Link, according to the letter to commerce secretary Gina Raimondo. They called it a glaring national security issue.
The commerce department said it would respond to the letter through appropriate channels. The Chinese embassy said it hopes authorities will have enough evidence when identifying cyber-related incidents, rather than make groundless speculations and allegations.
