The drones circled above the caves and crevices scattered along mountain trails in northern Utah, relaying real-time video to a search team on the ground looking for a missing hiker. Nineteen minutes later, they had their coordinates and brought the rescue exercise – a drill – closer to completion.
“In an environment like this, it actually happens pretty quickly,” said Kyle Nordfors, a search and rescue volunteer. He was operating one of the drones made by Chinese company DJI, which dominates sales to law enforcement and the hobby market in the United States.
But if DJI’s drones are the tool of choice for emergency responders across the country, they are widely viewed in Washington as a national security threat.
DJI is on a Defense Department list of Chinese military companies whose products will no longer be allowed to be purchased by the US armed forces in the future. As part of the defense budget passed by Congress this year, other federal agencies and programs are also likely to be banned from purchasing DJI drones.
The Treasury and Commerce Departments have punished DJI for using its drones to spy on Uighur Muslims held in camps by Chinese officials in the Xinjiang region. Researchers have found that Beijing could potentially exploit vulnerabilities in an app used to control the drone to gain access to large amounts of personal information, although a US official said there were currently no known vulnerabilities that had not been fixed.
Now Congress is considering legislation that could wipe out much of DJI’s commercial business in the United States by adding the company to the Federal Communications Commission’s list and blocking operations on the country’s communications infrastructure.
The bill, which has bipartisan support, was met with a vigorous lobbying campaign at DJI. The company hopes that Americans like Mr. Nordfors who use its products will help convince lawmakers that the United States has nothing to fear — and much to gain — by keeping DJI drones flying.
But the influence campaign is met with a skeptical audience.
“DJI poses an unacceptable national security risk, and it is past time for the drones manufactured by Communist China to be removed from America,” Rep. Elise Stefanik, a New York Republican and one of the bill’s lead sponsors, said in a statement this month Statement sent by email.
Government agencies have shown that DJI drones are providing data to the Chinese Communist Party about “critical infrastructure” in the United States, Ms. Stefanik said, without elaborating. “Any attempt to claim otherwise is a direct result of DJI’s lobbying efforts.”
The bill that would effectively ban DJI drones, known as the Countering CCP Drones Act, passed the House Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously last month. The bill could come up for a vote in the House in the next month or two, said a lobbyist and a China expert who was briefed on the plans, as part of a planned “China Week” with a number of people in attendance were Restrictions on the country’s operations in the United States could be considered.
The bill is also likely to gain support in the Senate, which has introduced various restrictions on Chinese-made drones in recent years.
In the middle of the 2024 election campaign, both parties want to show that they are taking tough action against China. The Senate passed a bill on Tuesday that would force ByteDance, the Chinese owner of the popular social media network TikTok, to sell the app within a year or cease operations in the United States. President Biden signed it into law on Wednesday.
Like TikTok, DJI drones are very popular in the USA. David Benowitz, a former DJI employee who works for US drone maker BRINC, estimates that DJI drones will account for 58 percent of the commercial market in 2022. There is no accurate and current data on DJI’s popularity among law enforcement agencies, but a 2020 Bard College study based on FAA records put the company’s share at 90 percent.
DJI’s lobbying effort has relied on grassroots support from users who fear a ban on the company’s drones would be disruptive and expensive, especially since U.S. suppliers have not proven they can compete on cost or quality.
“Beyond the national security risks these drones pose, we need a robust and competitive American drone industry,” Rep. John Moolenaar, Republican of Michigan and chairman of the House Committee on U.S.-China Competition, said in a statement .
According to Open Secrets, which tracks money in politics, DJI spent $1.6 million on lobbying last year. According to Senate lobbying revelations, the company has spent at least $310,000 so far this year. Some of those dollars have helped set up meetings with lawmakers for emergency responders using DJI drones.
The company has also funded a website called the Drone Advocacy Alliance, according to Vic Moss and Chris Fink, two drone users who manage the site. Its goal is, among other things, to raise awareness of the law to combat CCP drones and includes a template for contacting legislators directly.
“Our products are intended to promote the common good and benefit society,” Regina Lin, a DJI spokeswoman, said in a statement. She denied that the drones had been involved in human rights abuses and said they were not intended for surveillance.
DJI recently opened a showroom on a prime stretch of Fifth Avenue in Manhattan to display its drones, which range in price from $279 to at least $9,000 and are used for a variety of purposes, including amateur and professional photography as well as videography and architecture.
“Me and some of my friends use them to survey the terrain and determine the dimensions of buildings,” said Paolo Dallapozza, an Italian architect who recently visited the store.
Amid rumors that China hawks in Congress might blacklist lobbyists representing military-linked Chinese companies and their other clients, at least two firms representing DJI – the Vogel Group – have folded, according to Senate lobbying revelations and Avoq – severed their ties with DJI in February. DJI quickly hired new representatives, Senate filings show, including Liberty Government Affairs, which is run by a former senior aide to Sen. Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican who has been hostile to efforts to rein in TikTok.
DJI lawyers have complained to the Pentagon about its inclusion on the list of Chinese military contractors. DJI has so far tried unsuccessfully to have it removed. The lawyers noted, among other things, that DJI’s holdings in state-owned companies in China – including several banks, a state-owned insurance company and two municipal funds – represent less than 6 percent of the company’s shares.
“The ownership of DJI is primarily in the hands of its founders and early executives, none of whom are government officials or representatives of the government or government entities,” said Loretta Lynch, the former attorney general under President Barack Obama who is now a partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, wrote in a letter to the Defense Department in July.
However, the Pentagon is indomitable.
As China “seeks to blur the lines between civilian and military sectors, knowing your customer is critical,” said Jeff Jurgensen, a Defense Department spokesman.
“U.S. companies must be vigilant and not contribute to the People’s Republic of China’s military programs,” he added, referring to the People’s Republic of China.
Strategy discussions among DJI lobbyists have taken on a panicked tone in recent weeks, according to a company representative who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential details. Users like Mr. Fink — a former 911 dispatcher who runs a drone shop in Fayetteville, Arkansas that sells various makes and models, including some from DJI — have tried to intervene.
Mr. Fink said he focused less on where the drone was built and more on ensuring consumers had a choice of quality products. “I think we just need more competitive offerings that provide a cohesive, reliable, secure and user-friendly system,” he said.
Michael Lighthiser manages a large fleet of drones, including many from DJI, for George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. He has met virtually with state officials, including aides to Democrat Sen. Tim Kaine, to argue against proposed restrictions on the use of DJI drones. But acknowledging the political reality, Mr. Lighthiser said he also recently purchased a fixed-wing vertical takeoff drone from Event 38 Unmanned Systems, a manufacturer based in Richfield, Ohio.
The Event 38 drone cost a little more than the DJI version, Mr. Lighthiser said, but “I don’t want to buy a Chinese-made product that could be taken away in a month.”
Julian E. Barnes contributed reporting from Washington.
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2024-04-26 02:36:52
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