China’s DJI is selling drones to U.S. government agencies, including the FBI and DHS, and paying lobbyists in Washington to keep the flow going. The lobbyists are allegedly obstructing bills in Congress that would ban the practice.
Instead of supporting American jobs and protecting American privacy, Democrats in the House of Representatives just stripped language from the upcoming defense spending bill that would ban federal money from going to China’s drone companies and other firms that pose risks to U.S. national security.
The House Rules Committee, which made the decision, is allegedly responding to Washington lobbyists hired by Da-Jiang Innovations (DJI).
DJI spent millions of dollars over the years on these firms. Individual lobbyists improve their access by paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations to key congresspersons. They can offer high-paid jobs to staff members, congresspeople, and their families, who are politically influential and can serve a corrupt, but legal, revolving door process.
It’s a well-greased track in the heart of Washington politics and one that can serve Chinese and Russian companies in spades.
Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), who sponsored the drone measure, lambasted the opposition and lobbyists to which they are allegedly beholden.
Gallagher told the Financial Times, “The language in this amendment hasn’t changed since it passed the House in the Competes Act earlier this year and neither has the threat posed by DJI drones, but for some reason it seems Congress’s appetite to debate this issue has.”
Gallagher wrote in a statement sent to the National Review, “This is the latest example of how the CCP uses the swamp against us.” He said the lobbyists would “rather sell out the country than lose a lucrative contract.”
While public attention has focused on DJI, leading to a drop in its market share commercially to 50 percent in 2021 from 62 percent the year prior, another drone manufacturer from China, called Autel, increased its share in the United States to 9 percent from 7 percent. Both companies are threats to U.S. national security.
DJI admitted that the company could access customer data if they opt to share it. As anyone knows who is daily confronted with the overly long and legalistic privacy policies ubiquitous on the internet, many customers opt-in without understanding the fine print or that the counterparty could be based in China.
China’s national security laws require all companies operating in the country to provide it with any data demanded by the regime.
The argument for allowing U.S. law enforcement to purchase Chinese drones relies on their cheaper price.
But that comes at the expense of American jobs, the development of new American technologies, and the building of America’s industrial ecosystem, which the pandemic proved needs more robustness, depth, and flexibility. A stronger U.S. economy, achieved through buy-American policies, produces more tax revenue, which cancels out the price advantage (for government buyers) of Chinese drones.
China’s cheaper wages, worse labor conditions, lax environmental standards, and cyberespionage robbed America of the industrial base we built in the 20th century. If we don’t reverse that trend soon—including through requirements that American law enforcement buys American and allied drones—the 21st century will be when the CCP not only eats our lunch, but achieves its goal of global hegemony.
The House has failed, and now the ball is in the court of the Democrat-controlled Senate. It should include the ASDA language and demand that the defense spending bill ban the misuse of taxpayer money for drones from China’s military-industrial complex. It just makes sense—for American privacy, security, and economic health.
Any further failure on the part of Congress to pass this law will be the fault of Democrats, and result in more Democrats losing their seats in 2024.
