In sign the global leader of the consumer and enterprise UAV market is broadening its lobbying efforts against US blacklisting of its aerial tech, DJI has joined a small group of domestic companies to form the Drone Advocacy Alliance, which vows to battle spreading bans of craft “based simply on where they are manufactured.”
Given the inflamed anti-China sentiments in certain US circles – and the rather easy points to be scored by leaders giving politicized voice to those – the formation of a counter-lobbying organization isn’t surprising.
Left to be seen, however, is whether even DJI – by far the dominating actor in US and global drone manufacturing and sales – can reverse the rising protectionist blacklisting tide that has primarily penalized its drones. In doing so, it is being backed by four US UAV service partners, and an additional member that functions as a lobbying structure for those kinds of small and medium sector businesses.
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Though a communique announcing the creation of the Drone Advocacy Alliance says “(i)nitial partners represent a wide variety of drone industry stakeholders,” other members listed are limited trade industry association the Drone Service Providers Alliance, and companies Blue Nose Aerial Imaging, Dronelink, DroneSense, and the Pilot Institute – most of which use DJI craft in their activities.
Also noted is the Uncrewed Trade Alliance, which does not turn up on web searches. Of note is the absence of another China-based drone maker, Autel, which has also been a target of US bans.
Any and all initiatives taken by the Drone Advocacy Alliance are certain to be countered by lobbyists of US drone makes and their trade groups. Included among those is the somewhat shadowy American Drone Alliance, which was outspoken – some might argue bombastic – in denouncing reported complaints from federal agencies about early blacklisting of DJI craft having left them only with more expensive, under-performing domestic alternatives.
Such laments have multiplied in step with additional DJI drone blacklisting – which of late has been replicated by states including Florida and Arkansas.
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DroneDJ has written extensively in recent years on the banning of drones from China, based on thus far unsubstantiated claims DJI UAVs abetted Beijing in persecuting Muslim Uighurs,and leak user data to Communist Party officials. Also cited have been reports alleging the company received investments from state-owned entities, which would make it partially-owned by – and presumably responsive to orders from – the Chinese government.
DJI has repeatedly denied all those accusations, and in particular countered the notion of leaking by noting users of its drones themselves control whether craft can or cannot transmit collected data.
In addition to those regular rebuttals, the company has also begun investing considerable sums in lobbying help to combat what it says are protectionist measures benefitting US drone rivals. According to Open Secrets, the company spent nearly $1.5 million for those services in 2020 and last year, and nearly a million in 2021.
That outlay has not succeeded in halting the blacklist drive. DJI’s decision now to broaden its defensive efforts may have been provoked by a recent bill threatening to render its drones used by US consumers and private companies obsolete.
Tabled last April, the Countering CCP Drones Act seeks to amend a 2019 law by adding the drone company to the “Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Covered List, meaning that DJI technologies would be prohibited from operating on US communications infrastructure.” If passed, a resulting law would effectively turn company UAVs into gagged, rotor-sporting paper weights.
Read: Report reveals vast impact if US blacklisting of DJI drones spreads
Given the potential scope of that risk – and the consequences it would have for millions of private pilots and businesses relying on DJI UAVs – the characteristically beast lobbyist language of the Drone Advocacy Alliance’s mission statement is hard to dismiss as empty hyperbole.
It denounces that bill and other blacklists anti-competition as threats to “upend the American drone ecosystem, including software providers, resellers, distributors and countless end-users who have incorporated drones into their work.” It additionally calls them violations of “the right of American drone users to choose and use their drones.”
So long, of course, as those operators are dependent on DJI drones – though numerically speaking, the vast majority indeed are.
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