DJI Sues DoD Over Chinese Military Listing

DJI, a company that makes drones, sued the US Department of Defense on Friday because it was put on a list of “Chinese military companies”

Someone from DJI said the company sued because it had “tried to engage with the DoD for more than sixteen months” and felt it “had no alternative but to seek relief in federal court.”

“DJI is not owned or controlled by the Chinese military,” the spokesperson said. “The DoD also agrees that DJI makes consumer and commercial drones, not military drones.”

The Chinese company was added to the DoD’s list in 2022 after being put on similar lists by other government agencies. In 2020, DJI was put on the Department of Commerce’s Entity List, which meant that US companies couldn’t sell to it; the next year, it was put on the Treasury Department’s investment blocklist because it was thought to be involved in spying on Uyghur Muslims. The business said it had “nothing to do with how Uyghurs are treated in Xinjiang.”

DJI claims in its lawsuit that it has had negative effects from the listing, including lost revenue, continued financial and reputational harm, and harassment and shame towards its staff.

The business says the Department of Defense study that supports the listing “contains a scattershot set of claims that are wholly inadequate to support DJI’s designation.”

“Among other things,” the lawsuit says, “the Report uses the wrong legal standard, mixes up people with common Chinese names, and relies on old facts and weak connections that don’t prove that DJI is [a Chinese military company].” It also says that Frank Wang, the founder and CEO, and three early-stage investors “hold 99% of the company’s voting rights and approximately 87.4% of its shares.”