The Biden administration announced on Monday the launch of a comprehensive initiative to ban Chinese-developed software from Internet-connected cars in the United States, citing national security concerns.

The measure is aimed at preventing Chinese intelligence agencies from monitoring the movements of Americans or using the vehicles’ electronic systems to access the US power grid or other critical infrastructure.

The move, which is expected to be the last significant restriction on Chinese imports into the US during the Biden administration, follows a similar logic to the bans on Huawei telecommunications equipment and the investigation of Chinese-made cranes operating in US ports.

Together with Congress’s efforts to force TikTok to sever its ties with China, this initiative is a significant step in the US government’s efforts to close areas of cybersecurity risk.

But these measures have begun to erect a ‘digital iron curtain’ between two of the world’s largest economies, which less than two decades ago claimed to be linked by the internet.