SHANGHAI—Chinese drone maker DJI, which dominates the global consumer market, said Saturday it was suing the US Department of Defense, complaining that Washington had “erroneously” included the company on a Chinese military company blacklist.
It has faced scrutiny from Washington in recent years, including for its alleged role in surveilling ethnic minorities in China, and DJI drones have reportedly been used extensively by both sides in the war in Ukraine.
“On October 18, DJI filed a lawsuit to challenge the Department of Defense’s (DoD) erroneous designation of the company as a ‘Chinese Military Company’,” DJI said in a statement sent to AFP.
The Pentagon added DJI to its list of Chinese military-linked companies in 2022.
It said at the time that it was seeking to “highlight and counter (China’s) Military-Civil Fusion strategy, which supports the modernization goals of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).”
China did that by “ensuring its access to advanced technologies and expertise are acquired and developed by PRC (People’s Republic of China) companies, universities, and research programs that appear to be civilian entities,” the Pentagon said then.
DJI said Saturday it had attempted to “engage with the DoD for more than sixteen months” and had now “determined it had no alternative other than to seek relief in federal court.”
“DJI is not owned or controlled by the Chinese military, and the DoD itself acknowledges that DJI makes consumer and commercial drones, not military drones,” the company said.
“DJI is a private company and should not be misclassified as a military company.”
In April 2022, DJI said it was temporarily suspending business in both Russia and Ukraine while it “internally reassess(ed) compliance requirements”.
DJI was previously blacklisted by the US Department of the Treasury in 2021 for allegedly supporting the surveillance of the Uyghur minority in China’s Xinjiang region.
