DJI Sues US Department of Defense Over ‘Chinese Military Company’ Label

DJI filed a lawsuit against the United States Department of Defense (DoD) concerning the department’s declaring the Chinese drone company a “Chinese military company.”

Update 10/21: DJI has provided PetaPixel with a comment on the lawsuit, which has been added to the end of this article.

In DJI’s lawsuit, published by Politico as part of its reporting, DJI describes itself as “the largest privately owned seller of consumer and commercial drones, which are used by police departments, fire departments, other first responders, large and small companies, and hobbyists throughout the United States and the world.” The lawsuit aims to challenge the DoD’s “decision to designate” DJI as a “Chinese Military Company (‘CMC’) even though DJI is neither owned nor controlled by the Chinese military.” DJI further notes that the DoD acknowledges that DJI sells only consumer and commercial drones and not military products.

DJI characterizes its lawsuit as a last-ditch effort, claiming to have attempted to engage with the Department of Defense for more than 16 months, including through comprehensive delisting petitions.

DJI’s lawsuit, filed on October 18th in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, claims that the Department of Defense, which finally provided a “courtesy copy” of its report after more than a year of requests, has “numerous deficiencies,” including, per DJI, applying incorrect legal standards, confusing different people with common Chinese names, and failing to demonstrate any connection between DJI and the Chinese military.

This is not the first time that DJI has discussed these claims. Just over two years ago, the company published a statement about the DoD’s decision to add the drone maker to its list of Chinese military companies. Its entire statement from October 2022 is included below.

DJI stands alone as the only drone company to clearly denounce and actively discourage military use of our products, including suspending all business operations in Russia and Ukraine to try to keep our drones out of the conflict there. There is no reason why DJI has been added to the Defense Department’s list of ‘Chinese military companies.

DJI does not fall under any categories set by the law to be included on the list. DJI is not a military company in China, the United States or anywhere else. DJI has never designed or manufactured military-grade equipment, and has never marketed or sold its products for military use in any country. Instead, we have always developed products to benefit society and save lives.

We stand ready to formally challenge our inclusion on the list.

While DJI has publicly discouraged the use of its drones for military action and describes in detail in its new lawsuit what makes commercial drones different from military ones, DJI’s drones have been used in military operations. Just five months ago, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine announced that it had purchased 4,200 DJI Mavic 3E drones, joining thousands of other DJI drones it has previously purchased. The total value of the Ukrainian military’s DJI contract is 1.1 billion Ukrainian hryvnia, or about $26.6 million.

“Drones have evolved into an essential component of modern warfare. They strengthen our defense capabilities, increasing military operations’ effectiveness. Therefore, the procurement of drones is one of the main tasks of the Ministry of Defense. Our troops must be provided with everything necessary in a timely manner to have the ability to respond to any threats from the enemy,” Deputy Defense Minister of Ukraine Dmytro Klimenkov said in May of this year.

It is worth noting the distinction between drones being used by the military and drones being weapons of war in and of themselves. While the line gets blurry, the Ukrainian military purchased consumer and commercial drones for military action, rather than military drones.

These murky waters carry over to DJI’s actual Chinese headquarters, too, at least in the U.S. federal government’s view. The Pentagon alleges that DJI planned to build an Innovation Center and Global Technical Support Center in the Xi’an High-Tech Industrial Zone, which the DoD claims is a military-civil fusion enterprise zone in China. DJI claims this allegation is false and could have been corrected through “a quick Google search.” DJI says the Xi’an High Tech Zone is not the Xi’an Economic and Technological Development Zone, a military-fusion zone. Many American companies operate in the same area as DJI, including IBM, Johnson & Johnson, GE, and Intel, plus non-American companies like Infineon, Samsung, NEC, and Fujitsu.

When the Department of Defense placed DJI on a list of Chinese military companies operating in the United States in 2022, it did so while claiming that the listed companies, including DJI, posed potential threats to national security.

This rhetoric has persisted as DJI faces a potential ban in the United States. The Countering CCP Drones Act passed a vote in the House of Representatives earlier this year and is headed to the Senate for further deliberation and voting. Numerous politicians on both sides of the aisle have cited concerns about DJI’s impact on national security.

“It is strategically irresponsible to allow Communist China to be our drone factory. It is now critical that the Senate include this legislation in their National Defense Authorization Act,” the bill’s sponsor, Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY), said last month.

DJI alleges that because of its designation as a Chinese military company, which has “branded the company a national security threat,” DJI has “suffered ongoing financial and reputational harm, including lost business, and DJI employees have been stigmatized and harassed.” DJI has over 150 employees in the United States through several subsidiaries, per the lawsuit.

DJI’s lawsuit requests that the DoD’s designation of the company be rendered null and void, that the court determines the DoD acted outside the law, and that DJI be provided with “just and proper” relief.

DJI’s Statement

“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.’ After attempting to engage with the DoD for more than sixteen months, DJI 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,” a DJI spokesperson says.

Image credits: DJI