The U.S. government has begun a regulatory review of Chinese drones, saying they might pose a threat to national security. This is analogous to what was applied to TikTok.
The U.S. Department of Commerce announced on the 2nd (local time) that it’s considering restrictions and bans on Chinese-made drones and plans to gather public comments until March 4th.
The Commerce Department explained, “This can be a measure to dam the potential security threat that China could use drones to show sensitive U.S. data and supply the likelihood for distant manipulation.” The explanation is analogous to TikTok, which is about to be banned for allegedly leaking Americans’ information to China.
China accounts for at the very least 75% of the U.S. civilian drone market as of 2021. Amongst them, China’s DJI, the world’s largest drone company, occupied about half of the market.
Accordingly, since last 12 months, it has already begun to take measures against Chinese-made drones. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in September last 12 months that a ban on Chinese drones could possibly be implemented.
Also in December, President Joe Biden signed laws that might restrict DJI and Autel Robotics from selling latest drone models in america. Accordingly, the U.S. government must determine inside one 12 months whether DJI and Otel Robotics drones pose an inappropriate risk to national security.
The U.S. House of Representatives also passed a bill in September last 12 months banning DJI’s latest drones from operating in america.
DJI has consistently denied concerns about data transmission, surveillance and national security threats, and in October it filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Defense for designating it as an organization linked to the Chinese military.
The precise details and implementation of future drone regulations are expected to be decided by the second Donald Trump administration, which shall be inaugurated on the twentieth.
Reporter Park Chan cpark@aitimes.com
