DJI’s Popular Chinese Drones Get Temporary Reprieve, May Still be Banned

The world’s largest drone maker, Da Jiang Innovations (DJI), will have another year to convince American defense agencies that its products don’t pose a national security threat to the U.S.

The Chinese company faced an immediate ban on the use of its products if the U.S. Senate had included language from the Countering CCP Drones Act, which passed the House in September, in its final version of the National Defense Authorization Act. But the Senate chose instead to grant DJI and Autel Robotics, another Chinese drone maker, a temporary reprieve.

The NDAA, which the Senate overwhelmingly approved on Wednesday, is now waiting for President Joe Biden’s signature. It includes a provision directing an “appropriate national security agency” to examine DJI and Autel products—including drones and any other communications or video surveillance equipment—to determine whether they pose a risk to the U.S.

The agency has one year from the enactment of the NDAA to make its decision. If it determines that the companies’ products pose a threat, the Federal Communications Commission will be required to place those products on the so-called covered list, which bans the marketing and sale of certain devices. Owners of DJI and Autel products would still be able to use devices they purchased prior to the companies being added to the covered list.

With the exception of Russia-based Kaspersky Labs, all the equipment currently on the covered list comes from Chinese tech giants, such as Huawei, ZTE Corporation, Hytera Communications, Hikvision, Dahua Technology, China Mobile International, China Telecom Americas Corporation, Pacific Networks Corporation, and China Unicom Americas.

In a blog post, DJI said it was good news that the Countering CCP Drones Act wasn’t included in the NDAA, but that the “legislation unfairly singles out drones manufactured in China and does not designate an agency to conduct the required risk study.” If no agency takes up that responsibility, DJI’s products would automatically be added to the covered list, the company said.

Even if someone steps forward to conduct the review, many of the relevant U.S. defense agencies have already taken firm stances against Chinese-made drones.

“The Department of Defense (DOD) position is that systems produced by Da Jiang Innovations (DJI) pose potential threats to national security,” the DOD wrote in a 2021 statement confirming that military agencies were not allowed to use the company’s equipment.

Earlier this year, the FBI and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released a joint memo warning that the Chinese government could gather sensitive information about Americans and the country’s infrastructure through drone equipment manufactured in China.

In addition to those security concerns, politicians have also taken aim at DJI due to its market dominance. By most estimates, DJI has controlled at least 70 percent of the U.S. drone market for several years.

Advocating for the passage of the Countering CCP Drones Act, the bill’s sponsor, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY), said “It is strategically irresponsible to allow Communist China to be our drone factory.”