The Shenzhen-based firm is among 13 Chinese companies added to the list clearing the way for sanctions.
The US Department of Defense (DoD) added more than a dozen Chinese companies, including the world’s largest drone maker, to a blacklist of companies with suspected ties to the Chinese military, clearing the way for restrictions on your business.
Shenzhen-based DJI Technology, which is estimated to control more than half of the global commercial drone market, is among 13 companies added to the blacklist released by the Pentagon on Wednesday.
The blacklist gives the US president the authority to impose sanctions against companies deemed to have connections to the Chinese military.
The announcement comes after the US Treasury Department last year banned US-based individuals from trading shares of DJI and seven other Chinese companies for their alleged involvement in ethnic minority surveillance. Uyghur in the western region of Xinjiang, in the extreme west of China.
BGI Genomics Co, a genetic testing company; CRRC Corp, which makes rolling stock; and Zhejiang Dahua Technology, a Hangzhou-based manufacturer of surveillance equipment, were also added to the updated list.
The blacklist includes more than 60 Chinese companies, including tech giant Huawei Technology and semiconductor maker SMIC.
“The Department is determined to highlight and counter the PRC’s Military-Civilian Fusion strategy, which supports the People’s Liberation Army’s modernization goals by ensuring its access to advanced technologies and expertise is gained and developed by enterprises, universities and organizations of the People’s Republic of China. research programs that appear to be civilian entities,” the Pentagon said in a statement.
Charles Rollet, an analyst at Pennsylvania-based watchdog research group IPVM, said the moves against DJI, which is estimated to control more than half of the global commercial drone market, were a warning to investors to stay away. of the company.
“DJI had already been added by the US Treasury to the list of non-SDN Chinese military-industrial complex companies in December 2021, prohibiting US investment in the company. Therefore, the DoD listing confirms that the US government strongly believes that DJI contributes to the PRC military,” Rollet told Al Jazeera.
“Please note that DJI has received an investment from a PRC state-owned fund, China Chengtong, which openly promotes military-civilian fusion as a central goal.”
Al Jazeera has contacted DJI, Dahua, BGI and CRRC for comment.
US President Joe Biden has pushed to isolate Chinese companies with suspected military ties as part of a broad effort to counter Beijing in areas ranging from defense to technology to trade.
China described the US sanctions against Chinese companies as “typical political manipulation” and warned that scientific and technological advances should not be used as tools to restrict the development of other countries.