Chinese drone maker DJI sues Pentagon over ‘military’ design

Chinese drone maker DJI sues Pentagon over ‘military’ designation

The lawsuit reflects how the company is going on the offensive as it faces a congressional push to ban DJI’s drones from use in U.S. airspace.

Phelim Kine

“After attemptin 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 said in a statement on Saturday.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The new suit comes in response to the Pentagon’s move to place DJI — the world’s largest drone maker — on a list of “Military Companies Operating in the United States” in 2022. That followed the Pentagon’s declaration that DJI products “pose potential threats to national security” in 2021 and barred their use by U.S. government agencies. The lawsuit claims those actions have inflicted “ongoing financial and reputational harm” on the company.

The lawsuit reflects how the company is going on the offensive as it faces a congressional push to ban DJI’s drones from use in U.S. airspace. The company’s woes deepened in August when the House Select Committee on China urged the Commerce Department to probe allegations of DJI seeking to dodge trade restrictions through the use of front companies.

Suing the Pentagon is the latest effort by a Chinese firm “to weaponize U.S. legal frameworks to undermine national security,” said Craig Singleton, senior China fellow at the nonprofit thinktank the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “Ultimately, this lawsuit is a dead-end for DJI.”

Josh Gerstein contributed to this story“