US lawmakers attack Chinese drone maker DJI in letter to USDA

Chinese company DJI Technologies has responded to “baseless accusations” from U.S. lawmakers about its agricultural spraying drones in a letter sent by 12 Republican members of Congress to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Jen Easterly.

The letter was sent as the U.S. House of Representatives voted to pass the CCP’s Anti-Drone Act (HR 2864), which would add equipment and services from DJI, the market leader in U.S. agricultural spraying drones, to what’s known as the “covered list.” This would prevent DJI from obtaining licenses from the Federal Communications Commission for future drone models and could lead to the revocation of existing FCC authorizations.

The bill, which was also added as a rider to a defense spending bill (the National Defense Authorization Act or NDAA) passed in the House in June, must also pass the Senate to become law, noted DJI’s head of global policy Adam Welsh.

“It all depends on the Senate in both cases, as a stand-alone bill and as part of the NDAA (the Senate version of which does not contain measures against DJI but will have to be reconciled with the House version).”

“For years, the U.S. government has known that DJI poses unacceptable economic and national security risks, but no one has been willing to take the necessary steps to eliminate Chinese communist spy drones from our skies. That changed today.” It is strategically irresponsible to allow Communist China to become our drone factory. It is now essential that the Senate include this legislation in its National Defense Authorization Act. MP Elise Stefanik

Lawmakers: ‘Communist China will have control of our nation’s food supply’

In the letter to Vilsack and Easterly and signed by lawmakers Elise M. Stefanik, Ashley Hinson, Robert J. Wittman, Mark Alford, Derrick Van Orden, Dan Newhouse, Michael Guest, Neal P. Dunn, Andrew R. Garbarino, Dusty Johnson, Ben Cline and John R. Moolenaar, the authors highlight the alleged dangers of the “proliferation of Chinese-made agricultural drones across the United States.”

Through “unfair trade practices and massive government subsidies, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is using its monopoly on the global supply of drones to take control of our country’s food supply,” the letter states.

“DJI is closely tied to the CCP and is a Chinese military enterprise according to the US Department of Defense. The risk that these DJI agricultural spraying drones could be manipulated to carry out an attack in the United States cannot be ignored.”

DJI’s line of agricultural drones can also collect data that can be “weaponized by the CCP to gain access to precise details about the stability and health of the U.S. agricultural sector,” the lawmakers say.

As a Chinese company, DJI must also hand over to the Chinese government the data it collects in China and abroad, they argue. “Not only can the CCP exploit its access to this data to disrupt our agricultural production, it also has control over the export of Chinese-made drones. If the success of the American agricultural industry depends on American farmers having access to purchase and operate Chinese drones, then Communist China will have control over our nation’s food supply.”

DJI: ‘By the definition used by DJI critics, virtually any company could be considered subsidized.

In a blog post refuting the allegations, DJI rejected the authors’ claim that DJI’s leadership in the U.S. agricultural drone market reflected unfair business practices, adding: “DJI drones remain the product of choice across industries because of our product’s combination of reliability, innovation, and safety, and because of our first-mover advantage.”

She added: “By the definition used by DJI’s critics, virtually any company could be considered subsidized.”

Meanwhile, accusing DJI of wanting to jeopardize the U.S. food supply “is not only completely false but also highly contradictory,” DJI added. “DJI’s agricultural drone solutions have proven their ability to support sustainable agriculture and help farmers integrate precision farming techniques, allowing them to increase yields, reduce farm input costs, and avoid costly yield losses.”

Regarding security, DJI said: “Since 2017, we have continuously invested in regular security audits conducted by reputable third-party experts, while enhancing the privacy controls available on our drone models. DJI also aligns with U.S. government and industry guidelines for drone operators to practice good security hygiene and conduct regular reviews and training to ensure their protocols remain up to date with industry standards.”

DJI drones “do not collect flight logs, photos, or videos by default. And operators must agree to share this data with us,” the company explains. As for drones that “become uncontrollable” in mid-flight, “those who want to take extra precautions can easily choose to enable Local Data Mode and even turn on their mobile’s ‘Airplane Mode’ for added peace of mind. This means the flight app is completely disconnected from the internet.”

The company added: “DJI has never received a request for foreign data under China’s National Security Law and China’s National Intelligence Law. If it were to receive such a request, DJI’s policy would be to review the request to verify whether it meets the legal requirements for disclosure… this only applies to data to which DJI has access, and as we said earlier, DJI does not collect flight logs, photos, or videos by default.”

If the letter’s signatories truly want to support American farmers, DJI said, they should engage directly with them to see firsthand how they are using drones to optimize their operations and increase yields and develop technology-based data security standards that all drone operators and manufacturers must follow, regardless of their country of origin.

It is “disheartening” to see “public policy discussions influenced by political considerations rather than facts”

A DJI spokesperson said AgFunder News:“While it is disheartening to see public policy discussions once again being influenced by politics rather than facts, DJI remains committed to actively engaging with legislators to dispel misconceptions about our brand.

“DJI drones are used by federal agencies, local law enforcement, and emergency response teams to keep communities safe and save lives. The use of DJI drones has also enabled the growth of small businesses in industries ranging from real estate to agriculture and transportation. All of these businesses depend on access to DJI drone technology to support their operations.

“Legislation that restricts the ability of U.S. drone operators to purchase and use the right equipment for their job, based solely on the equipment’s country of origin, not only harms U.S. interests, it also hurts the very industry that Congress seeks to support.”

The coalition wants to “protect the vital data of all drones, regardless of their country of origin”

DJI Distributors Who Spoke to AgFunder News In recent weeks, fears that crop-spraying drones could be hijacked mid-flight for malicious purposes or send vital information to China have been overblown. However, they want to address lawmakers’ security concerns and create cybersecurity standards or appropriate regulations to “protect the vital data of all drones, regardless of their country of origin,” according to Drone Nerds CEO Jeremy Schneiderman.

Bryan Sanders, president of industrial drone company HSE-UAV, added: “It’s very fashionable to be anti-China right now and DJI has become sort of the scapegoat for all of that, but this technology doesn’t provide anything that you can’t glean from other publicly available sources about planting and crop production, and if you want maps, go to Google Earth. If you want to see what pesticides are being used and how much, you can go to the EPA website.”

He added: “We are seeing a lot of alarmist and scary scenarios. But if you really look at what is being said, you can quickly debunk them.”