A Chinese government-linked drone maker used by the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and U.S. law enforcement agencies is lobbying heavily against congressional efforts to ban the use of the “Made in China” drones.
Shenzhen DJI Sciences and Technologies, which goes by DJI, filed its lobbying disclosure form last week, showing how the company spent $400,000 from July through September this year. This is the second-largest total DJI ever reported spending in a quarter, just behind the $420,000 spent in the final part of 2020.
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 in July. 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, designated a Chinese military company by the Pentagon earlier in October, said in its filings that it is lobbying against similar proposals in the Senate, and the Chinese company lobbied against the Countering CCP Drones Act.
The company said its lobbying efforts were aimed at the House, Senate, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Transportation, and Department of Interior. DJI has also lobbied the Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department this year.
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.
“The stories coming out now on Huawei will be replaced soon enough with ones on DJI,” Brendan Carr, the top Republican commissioner on the FCC, told the Washington Examiner. “For years, DJI has been working to obscure its financial ties to the CCP. DJI’s work with the CCP’s surveillance operations in Xinjiang only adds additional concern.”
Carr added: “Washington needs to get serious about the national security threats that DJI poses — regardless of how much lobbying they’re doing.”
DJI also spent $290,000 on lobbying from January to March and $380,000 on lobbying from April to June.
The company has reported spending $680,000 on lobbying in 2019, $1.42 million in 2020, $1 million in 2021, and $1.07 million most of the way through 2022. OpenSecrets says the totals were $560,000 in 2018, $540,000 in 2017, and $390,000 in 2016.
“DJI is not a military company in China, the United States, or anywhere else,” Adam Lisberg, the director of corporate communications for DJI North America, told the Washington Examiner this month.
The FBI and DHS admitted in July that they were continuing to purchase and use the Chinese-made DJI drones despite significant national security concerns about them, with Biden officials stressing the agencies are attempting to move away from Chinese drones.
“We cannot comment on specific operational equipment procured by the FBI but can assure the public that the FBI, as a general matter, takes all necessary measures to ensure the security and safety of its operations,” the bureau told the Washington Examiner this month.
The Law Enforcement Drone Association lists DJI on its “vendors/sponsors” webpage, and the association signed a June letter sent to the Senate arguing that bans on Chinese drones “could undermine the use of drones for essential public safety.”
Wayne Baker, director of public safety integration for DJI from November 2019 to the present, had been emergency management coordinator for Joshua, Texas, from 2009 to October 2019.
Baker included a short testimonial on the drone association website, saying, “I really support the LEDA mission and what you guys are doing.”
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It was reported by the Dispatch in September that DJI has been “flying in police officers and other first-responders from local municipalities to meet with congressional offices and to lobby against” the drone ban. The outlet said DJI representatives tell lawmakers that “Congress should be ‘agnostic’ on where drones are made” and that “DJI drones offer cash-strapped police departments the best bang for their buck.”
The Commerce Department added DJI to its blacklist in 2020, and the Treasury Department designated it as a “Chinese Military-Industrial Complex” company in 2021, in part because it “has provided drones to the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau, which are used to surveil Uyghurs in Xinjiang.”
