Chinese Drone Maker DJI Shut Out of Washington With US Market at Risk

Article content

The opposition to DJI appears to be largely bipartisan. Representative Frank Pallone Jr., the leading Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said the company had been repeatedly flagged by the federal government as a national security concern.

Article content

“I simply won’t stand by and accept that risk, which is why I’ll continue to support DJI being added to the list of banned telecom technology that my Secure and Trusted Act created. This is exactly how I intended this law to work,” he said in an email to Bloomberg.

Article content

Welsh said he’s had to confront a “very established group think” on China. 

Article content

“They may be accurate on some points, but they’re certainly not accurate about us, and we’re trying to break through and be treated on our own merits,” he told Bloomberg in an interview.

Article content

The parts that make up the drones mainly come from manufacturers working in and around Shenzhen, China’s Silicon Valley, which lies across the border from Hong Kong.

Article content

Influence Game

Article content

ByteDance Ltd., TikTok’s Chinese parent, spent millions in 2024 lobbying Congress, paying influencers to file lawsuits, and mobilizing its 170 million American users in a failed effort to kill legislation requiring it to sell the app’s US operations or face a ban. The law took effect in January, but President Donald Trump has signed three extensions of the deadline for ByteDance to sell, allowing the video-sharing platform to continue operating in the US while the administration seeks to arrange a sale.

Article content

Article content

DJI’s efforts pale in comparison. 

Article content

So far this year, the manufacturer has spent about $400,000 on lobbyists and law firms, according to Open Secrets. They include law firm Sidley Austin, which referred all inquiries about its work for the manufacturer to DJI. One lobbyist, Brian Darling at Liberty Government Affairs, said DJI faced both an educational and ideological challenge on Capitol Hill.

Article content

“Some offices have little knowledge of the specifics of the company and others are ideologically opposed to any company that manufactures and is headquartered in China, even though they all use iPhones manufactured in China,” he told Bloomberg.

Article content

Despite the growing security concerns, police departments in Asheville, North Carolina and Ross Township in Pennsylvania continue to use the drones, saying they have been invaluable for police work and public safety. 

Article content

During Hurricane Helene last year, the Asheville police force used drones, including those manufactured by DJI and Skydio, a California-based company, to identify and rescue victims, map damage to infrastructure and provide real-time aerial views for law enforcement and first responders, said Brandon Moore, Asheville police patrol commander. 

Article content

Article content

In Ross Township, the drones have been used to cover ground more quickly to find missing people, including children and elderly, and used to scout potentially dangerous scenarios where suspects have barricaded themselves against law enforcement. They’ve also provided real-time aerial assessments during SWAT-type operations, said Brian Kohlhepp, the deputy chief of police.

Article content

Both officers said their departments follow safety guidelines for data collection and use and were extremely cognizant of people’s privacy.

Article content

“We don’t use them in any capacity where anything that we’re reviewing isn’t publicly available on Google Maps,” Kohlhepp told Bloomberg. “I would argue that the use of the drones wouldn’t reveal anything that compromises national security.”

Article content

Other police departments, including Orange County Florida, ceased using DJI and Autel drones after a state legislature ban came into effect in 2023.

Article content

DJI has a business partnership with Anzu Robotics, a company headquartered in Austin, Texas, that sells DJI drones. Critics claim the company is a pop up created by DJI in the event of the ban becoming law. The House Select Committee that focuses on China wrote DJI last year calling Anzu a “passthrough” company created to avoid the government restrictions. DJI referred questions about the nature of the partnership to Anzu.