Drone manufacturer DJI has sued the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) over its designation as a “Chinese military company.” After more than sixteen months of trying to engage with the DoD, DJI said it had no alternative but to take legal action in federal court.
A DJI spokesperson said that DJI is not owned or controlled by the Chinese military. According to the spokesperson, the DoD recognises that DJI manufactures commercial and consumer drones, not military.
DJI was added to the DoD’s list in 2022 after several actions against the company by other U.S. agencies. The Department of Commerce added DJI to its Entity List in 2020- a move that bars U.S. companies from doing business with it. The following year, the Treasury Department added DJI to its investment blocklist, alleging that the company was connected to surveillance activities against Uyghur Muslims. DJI has denied such allegations, saying it “has no involvement in the treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang.”.
Apart from loss in terms of money, DJI also says that the DoD’s action had damaged its reputation and lost the firm deals that would have been obtained. DJI has claimed that the DoD report relied on incorrect statements, outdated data, and confused people with ordinary Chinese names.
In addition, the company claims that its founder and CEO, Frank Wang, and three early investors hold 99% of DJI’s voting rights and around 87.4% of the company’s shares, challenging this assumption that a military somehow runs it.
