House Committee Sounds Alarm Over US Drone Company’s Ties to CCP

China-made drones are deployed during a demonstration at the Los Angeles Fire Department ahead of DJI's AirWorks conference in Los Angeles on Sept. 23, 2019. Robyn Becker/AFP via Getty Images

Two lawmakers have raised concerns about the U.S.-based drone company Anzu Robotics over its ties to DJI, a Chinese military drone firm backed by Beijing.

“Security researchers have confirmed that Anzu’s Raptor T is essentially a DJI Mavic 3 painted green, with its remote control and application all running on DJI technology,” Reps. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), chair and ranking member of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), respectively, wrote in a letter to Anzu Robotics CEO Randall Warnas, made public on Aug. 27.

Earlier this year, the House passed the Countering CCP Drones Act, which, if signed into law, would ban DJI from accessing U.S. communications networks.

DJI is known to be a CCP-controlled entity, and the U.S. government has identified it as a security risk. The Department of Defense announced in a July 2021 statement that DJI systems pose “potential threats to national security” and designated it a Chinese military company. The Treasury and Commerce departments sanctioned DJI, because its drones have been used to advance the CCP’s persecution of Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region, according to the letter.

Despite this designation, “Anzu did not disclose its relationship with DJI in its filings with the [Federal Communications Commission], even while the Anzu drone was found to include DJI parts,” the letter reads.

After security researchers publicized their findings that the Anzu Raptor T was the same as the DJI Mavic 3, Anzu and DJI both acknowledged that they had a partnership.

The lawmakers’ letter includes diagrams and photographs showing similarities and shared parts between an Anzu and a DJI drone.

“We believe there are fundamental misunderstandings about how Anzu Robotics operates and complies with the law,” Anzu’s CEO wrote in an email to The Epoch Times.

Warnas did not provide specific details to refute the lawmakers’ accusations but stated that the company would cooperate with the committee.

“We look forward to working collaboratively with the Committee to address their concerns,” he said.

The lawmakers asked Warnas to disclose the terms of Anzu’s partnership with DJI, noting that the publicly available evidence reviewed by the congressional committee has led lawmakers to believe that the partnership is meant to obscure CCP-backed technology entering the United States.

“The nature of the DJI–Anzu relationship appears to defy common business conventions,” the lawmakers wrote, noting that while Anzu said it is licensing DJI technology, DJI receives no royalties through this licensing.

“On top of that, according to an Anzu presentation, DJI is also providing ‘priority technical support’ for all Anzu drones,” the lawmakers said, providing a screenshot of this presentation.

“According to your company, it ‘was essentially DJI’s idea’ to enter into this licensing agreement with a ‘one-man startup’ with no technical expertise or pre-existing drone customer base,” the letter reads.

Anzu’s use of DJI software and firmware leaves its products vulnerable to a CCP-based supply chain attack, according to the lawmakers, adding that even the software that didn’t come from DJI is based on DJI technology.

The lawmakers demanded that Anzu provide a detailed breakdown of its parts and technologies, as well as their sources, by Sept. 13. They have also inquired whether the company acknowledges that its products are subject to the same restrictions that the government has imposed on DJI.

The committee has previously sounded the alarm on Cogito Tech Company, similarly accusing it of serving as a smokescreen for DJI by reselling drones with DJI technology under a different name and brand.

In a separate letter dated Aug. 20, the lawmakers asked Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to investigate both Anzu and Cogito for their ties to DJI and the CCP.