The U.S. Department of Commerce announced on Friday the addition of DJI to the blacklist. The Chinese company will no longer be able to work with American companies.
We already knew about the difficult situation of Huawei in the field of smartphones. These are similar restrictions that now apply to another leading Chinese brand in its field: DJI.
This Friday, the United States Department of Commerce decided to actually put the manufacturer of drones and stabilizers on the list of entities, as reported by Reuters. Remember that this is a list of foreign entities with which American companies no longer have the right to collaborate. In fact, this should considerably complicate DJI’s business, which should no longer be able to be marketed beyond the Atlantic, to source American components, or even to offer updates to its applications in iOS and Android stores.
An addition potentially motivated by espionage fears
As a reminder, Huawei had been targeted by this same list of entities in spring 2019. Since then, American restrictions have continued to increase, with Washington banning electronic chip makers – including non-Americans – from doing business with Huawei. In that matter, Chinese smelter SMIC, which Huawei has been imagining working with for some time, is also on the American black list.
The cause of this addition of DJI to the American list is still unknown. As reported The Verge, the other companies added were added for reasons of attacks on American national security or interests of American international politics. Specifically, Washington may fear that the dji drones be used to collect information in the United States and transmit it to Beijing.
Remember that in recent years, a Chinese law has required all citizens and businesses participate in national intelligence. It was on this same basis that Huawei’s espionage suspicions were raised.