United States: Shenzhen-based DJI Technology Co., the world's largest consumer drone maker, was added on Wednesday by the US Defense Department to a list of Chinese businesses it believes will be Beijing-based, along with a dozen other high-tech military companies. affiliated with.
After a preliminary blacklist was issued last year, the action paves the way for the US Commerce Department to ban US business transactions with companies, including investments. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), an annual law that must be passed to guide US military funding, last year mandated the creation of the list.
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The initial Pentagon list included dozens of companies, including Huawei Technologies, which was already on the Commerce Department's entity list, a list of companies prohibited from receiving US technology. The second tranche also includes China State Construction Group, a major player in infrastructure projects and BGI Genomics, China's largest genomics company.
According to the department, the Pentagon "...is developed by PRC companies, universities and research programs that appear to be civilian institutions."
The US government had previously banned trade deals with Chinese firms over concerns that they could eventually help expand and modernize the PLA, which led to Wednesday's announcement.
As part of the NDAA in 2019, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) was given a strong mandate to reject foreign acquisitions that could endanger national security, and Huawei and other Chinese companies . Added to the black list of commerce department.
Due to claims that the Russian military was using DJI drones in the conflict, the company's investigation increased as Russia's war in Ukraine was underway.
Concerns grew after a social media post by the Russian embassy in Beijing a few weeks ago praising the usefulness of DJI products in contemporary warfare.
Yuri Baluyevsky, the former chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, has a new book that disputes a report by Russian state media Sputnik, according to a post on Weibo cited by DJI.
About 300 Chinese companies are listed on the Entity List maintained by the Department of Commerce; The latest additions, which include seven state-affiliated firms in the aerospace and chip industries, were registered in August.
The ban on transactions with 33 Chinese organizations whose ownership is believed to be "unverified" and therefore presumed to have potential military ties was made public by the department earlier this year.
Most of the new "unverified list" entries are pharmaceutical and high-tech manufacturers, such as laser component makers. The license is required for US businesses that wish to export entities on the list.