By Trendsetter Tribune 
President Donald Trump’s administration is shaking up the Commerce Department, with Elizabeth “Liz” Cannon resigning as executive director of the office that barred nearly all Chinese cars from the U.S. market for national security reasons. Cannon’s office, part of the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), was created in 2022 to monitor foreign threats to the supply chain, especially from adversaries like China.
Cannon’s departure comes amid significant shifts in U.S. trade and tech policy toward China. Just recently, the department dropped a plan to restrict Chinese drones, despite concerns that adversaries could remotely manipulate the devices and access sensitive American data. Expected rules on medium- and heavy-duty truck imports from China have also been put on hold.
Under Biden, Cannon’s office finalized rules effectively barring Chinese passenger vehicles, citing data collection and manipulation risks from vehicles connected to navigation systems. Her office also made headlines in 2024 by blocking Russian antivirus software Kaspersky Lab, citing national security threats.
Sources say Cannon’s resignation could have been a precursor to reassignment, with a political appointee expected to fill the role. Her last day is slated for February 20. The changes are part of broader staffing shifts at the Commerce Department, which have seen several senior export control officials leave or move on in recent months.
Cannon brought decades of experience in national security and tech enforcement, including prosecuting export control cases at the Department of Justice, such as the 2017 ZTE case, where the Chinese telecom firm paid nearly $900 million in a guilty plea.
With the Biden-era restrictions on Chinese imports and exports now on hold, and advanced AI chip exports recently greenlit for China ahead of a planned Trump-Xi meeting in April, Cannon’s exit underscores the administration’s pivot in trade and technology policy, leaving questions about how the U.S. will manage national security risks from foreign tech moving forward.