A Chinese government-linked drone maker boosted its spending to lobby lawmakers this year ahead of a crucial vote on the use of “Made in China” drones.
Shenzhen DJI Sciences and Technologies, which goes by DJI, filed its new lobbying disclosure form this week detailing its efforts in the second quarter of 2022, showing the company spent $380,000 from April to June. This is the second-largest total DJI ever reported spending in a quarter since its filings began in 2016, just behind the $420,000 spent in the final part of 2020.
The United States considers DJI a “Chinese Military Industrial Complex” company. The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security admitted last week they are continuing to purchase and use the Chinese-made drones despite security concerns about them, with Biden officials saying agencies are attempting to move away from Chinese drones.
The specific DJI lobbying issues included opposition to the American Security Drone Act, with a specific mention of the National Defense Authorization Act too. The ASDA failed to be added as an amendment when the NDAA passed the House last week. The ban on the purchase and use of Chinese drones by federal agencies was unsuccessfully pushed for by House Republicans.
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DJI said in its filings that it is lobbying against similar provisions in the Senate’s United States Innovation and Competition Act. The company said its lobbying efforts were aimed at the House, the Senate, the Federal Aviation Administration, the Department of Transportation, the Federal Communications Commission, the Justice Department, and the Department of the Interior. The disclosure listed its lobbyist as Daniel Hoff, the director of government affairs for DJI as of January, who worked from 2016 to 2021 as the governmental affairs manager for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.
DJI’s filing spanning January through March reported $290,000 in lobbying against similar ban efforts. The company reported spending $140,000 but said it conducted no lobbying activity in the fourth quarter of 2021. The company has reported spending $680,000 on lobbying in 2019, $1.42 million in 2020, $1 million in 2021, and $670,000 midway through this year. OpenSecrets says the totals were $560,000 in 2018, $540,000 in 2017, and $390,000 in 2016.
It was reported by the Financial Times last week that DJI hired two lobbying firms (Squire Patton Boggs and Vogel Group) to convince lawmakers to oppose the ASDA. The report said DJI hired SPB in April and focused on the NDAA.
The outlet cited emails from a congressional office to say DJI’s lobbyists “argue that its drones are critical for local law enforcement and first responders as they are more advanced and much cheaper than US rivals.”
“It should have been easy for Congress to agree that a blacklisted Chinese drone company that works directly with the Chinese military should not receive any federal funds — no matter how much money DJI spends on lobbying,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), a ranking member on House Foreign Affairs Committee, told the Washington Examiner this week. “Apparently countering China is less important than influence peddling in DC to some Democrat leaders.”
Matthew Bonaccorsi, communications director for Rep. James McGovern (D-MA), the chairman of the House Rules Committee, said the ASDA bill was submitted as an amendment to the NDAA but the committee had “received a record number of proposed amendments — over 1,200 — to the NDAA this year.” He said that “the committee did not have time to run such a major bill through the proper channels to vet it.”
“Neither DJI nor their lobbyists reached out to Chairman McGovern or our committee staff about this, and we have never heard of them before this inquiry,” McGovern’s spokesman said, arguing the Democrat wasn’t even previously aware of the Chinese company. “Chairman McGovern personally supports the idea behind the amendment and believes that there should be a high level of scrutiny for any imports of technology from China which could be used for national security purposes.”
Adam Lisberg, the director of corporate communications for DJI North America, would not confirm whether DJI hired outside lobbyists and declined to provide specifics about how DJI lobbied lawmakers.
“DJI is proud to represent the interests of the people who use our products, especially businesses, researchers, and first responders who count on being able to use our products in business critical and sometimes life-or-death situations,” the DJI spokesman told the Washington Examiner. “And when there are proposals being pushed by our competitors which would block the ability of Americans to make their own choices about drones, we have to step up to represent their interests.”
American and European drone companies urged the Senate and House in June to pass the ASDA, saying the law would “address a critical national security issue — the expenditure of taxpayer dollars on Chinese-made drones that threaten national security, economic competitiveness, and human rights.”
DJI sent a letter to the same lawmakers a few days later, saying the letter from its competitors “contained several inaccurate and misrepresented claims about our company” and arguing the ASDA “is unnecessary and would be harmful to the drone industry as a whole and to American businesses and government agencies.”
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The Pentagon determined in 2021 that DJI systems “pose potential threats to national security.”
“DJI rejects any systemic wrongdoing by our company as a basis for inclusion on the Department of Commerce’s Entity List or the Department of the Treasury’s Chinese Military-Industrial Complex Companies List,” the company said in its June letter.
At a hearing last week, Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) said he hopes the Senate adopts the Chinese drone ban. “DJI has servers in China. They have support from the Chinese government,” he said. “The Chinese state security services is one of their customers.”
