Chinese drone maker DJI loses appeal to get off Pentagon blacklist

A US federal judge has rebuffed drone maker DJI’s efforts to be removed from a Department of Defense list of Chinese military companies. The firm claims it’s not owned or controlled by the Chinese military.

Judge Paul Friedman said that the Pentagon had provided “substantial evidence” that DJI contributes “to the Chinese defense industrial base.” More specifically, Friedman pointed to the use of modified DJI drones in Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

“Whether or not DJI’s policies prohibit military use is irrelevant. That does not change the fact that DJI’s technology has both substantial theoretical and actual military application,” wrote the judge.

This means that DJI will remain on the official Department of Defense list of Chinese military companies. The company was also earlier placed on similar lists compiled by other US government agencies, including the Department of Commerce and the Treasury.

Indeed, despite DJI’s official stance against such uses of its product, military modification of DJI drones is a reality, with conflicts like the Russia-Ukraine war seeing both sides adapt DJI commercial drones to drop explosives and conduct surveillance.

DJI said in its filing last year that it wasn’t owned or controlled by the Chinese military and that “the DoD itself acknowledges that DJI makes consumer and commercial drones, not military drones.”

The company also said it had suffered financial and reputational harm, including lost business.

Indeed, the judge himself explained in his published opinion, once any company is placed on the DoD’s 1260H list, the placement “stigmatizes” the entity at a minimum. More concretely, the entity cannot access grants, contracts, loans, and other programs.

DJI drones have also been weaponized by the Israeli military in its campaign in Gaza – for both bombing and surveillance.

But the judge also plainly said (PDF) that “DJI’s arguments fail,” highlighting the clear dual-use nature of the company’s drones.

DJI drones have also been weaponized by the Israeli military in its campaign in Gaza – for both bombing and surveillance, Al Jazeera reported in May. The company is still selling its drones to Israel.

The US Army stopped using DJI drones in 2017, and the US Interior Department grounded its fleet of DJI drones over spying risks that same year.

More trouble might be coming. According to The New York Times, farmers, builders, and police officers are still using DJI drones, but their imports might be banned altogether in December – unless it’s decided that the drones don’t pose an unacceptable risk to US national security.

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