Lawmakers Urge US Agencies to Restrict Use of Chinese Drones

A dozen U.S. lawmakers urged the federal government on Sept. 6 to restrict the use of Chinese-made agriculture drones and requested a briefing with the Agriculture Department and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency by Sept. 30. DJI has denied ties to the Chinese military, but publicly available information show ties between the manufacturer and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). “The risk of these DJI agricultural spray drones being manipulated to carry out an attack in the United States cannot be ignored,” lawmakers wrote. “Relying on our greatest strategic adversary for technology critical to the success of our agricultural production endangers the resiliency of our food supply.” In 2021, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned DJI, blocking American investors from buying or selling DJI shares due to human rights concerns. DJI, a private company, does not trade shares. The sanctions do not prohibit the sale or use of DJI products. This March, DJI opened a flagship store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, signaling expansion in the U.S. market. “Xinjiang police and other local authorities are still buying products from DJI. Xinjiang public security departments entered into seven procurement orders with DJI that were worth nearly US$300,000 between 2019 and 2022,” the report reads. The CCP is known to persecute several ethnic minority groups and religious groups, subjecting them to arbitrary detention, forced labor, torture, and other human rights abuses. A United Nations investigation into the CCP’s persecution of Uyghurs independently confirmed in 2022 that “serious human rights violations have been committed” in the Xinjiang region. “A DJI drone was used to film the video uploaded to YouTube in September 2019 showing hundreds of blindfolded and shackled men outside a train station in the Uyghur Region,” the report reads. “In the video, dozens of police officers appear to be transferring the men from a detention center in Kashgar to facilities in Korla.” Last month, the CCP acceded to calls from the international community to restrict use of Chinese-made drones for military application, issuing some restrictions on exports of drones that could be used for military or terrorist activities. At the same time, it lifted some restrictions on civilian drones.