Two US lawmakers are calling for a probe into a North American subsidiary of a Chinese EV-charging company that does business in the US due to so-called national security concern, a latest bid to crack down on China’s access to American consumers and technology, the Wall Street Journal reported. This latest attempt to smear Chinese companies under the guise of "national security" once again exposes US’ irrational and baseless suppression of Chinese enterprises, seriously impeding normal China-US trade, a Chinese expert said.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn and Rep. John Moolenaar recently wrote to the Secretaries of Commerce and Defense, asking them to investigate Autel Energy, according to a copy of the letter viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

The lawmakers want the agencies to consider adding Autel Energy to a blacklist of companies deemed a national-security concern and to a Department of Defense list of companies with links to China due to unfounded concerns about its access to consumer data and critical grid infrastructure, according to the letter.

An Autel Energy spokesman said that the company has direct investments and partnerships in North America even though its parent firm is headquartered in China, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The Global Times has sought comments from Autel Energy but has not received a response as of press time.

US lawmakers distorting the normal business activities of Chinese enterprises into "security threats" is essentially a Cold War mentality. This approach is a subjective assumption that deems any Chinese product unsafe for the US and it is entirely unfounded, He Weiwen, a senior fellow at the Center for China and Globalization, told the Global Times Thursday.

"Using so-called national security as a pretext to investigate and restrict Chinese companies is an abuse of the national security concept, which seriously hinders normal trade and investment between China and the US,” He said.

This is not an isolated case. Over the past years, the US has repeatedly used the "national security" stick, suppressing Chinese companies in various sectors. In response, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has refuted multiple times US' abuse of the concept of national security.

In response to a question that US has placed dozens of Chinese entities on the US Department of Commerce’s export restriction list, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said on March 26 that US’ action is an abuse of its entity list and other export controls.

The US falsely accuses China of “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy” and uses it as an excuse to impose illicit unilateral sanctions. This is typical hegemonism and a serious violation of international law and the basic norms governing international relations. The action of the US harms the lawful rights and interests of businesses and destabilizes the global industrial and supply chains. We firmly oppose and strongly condemn this, Guo said.

We call on the US to stop overstretching the concept of national security, stop politicizing trade and sci-tech issues and using them as a weapon and a tool and stop abusing various kinds of sanction lists to hit Chinese companies. China will take necessary steps to firmly safeguard the lawful rights and interests of Chinese companies, Guo said.