U.S. Ends Gov't Civilian Drone Program Over China Fears

Trump has made China a cornerstone of his presidency – confronting them, challenging them, levying tariffs on Chinese goods … but this could be his boldest (or most petty) move against the People’s Republic.

On Sunday, the government announced that it was grounding its civilian drone program over their nation of origin (China, by a wide margin). This will put 1,000 drones from the Interior Department out of commission, an indirect casualty of the Sino-American trade war.

The U.S. government claims that Beijing could use the Chinese drones for spying, and if nothing else, the numbers are cause for concern – China provides 70% of the world’s civilian drone market, so if the PRC did intend to use them as a unique Trojan Horse, the numbers favor them.

If I were given to conspiracy theories, I’d say the government was engaged in little more than protectionism, but I’m not. So I’ll just call it bad policy.

Shenzhen DJI Sciences and Technologies Ltd. (DJI) provided 121 of the Interior Department’s drones, and the Chinese company was none too pleased.

“While we have not seen the new policy, we look forward to reviewing the findings of DOI’S comprehensive review of its drone programme, given the lack of credible evidence to support a broad country-of-origin restriction on drone technology,” said a spokesperson.

And they’re not the only ones miffed by this comprehensive ban.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service mentioned that they’d already cancelled drone flights for monitoring controlled burns to reduce wildfires. And they most assuredly won’t be the last department affected.

Read more here: https://www.ft.com/content/a50088de-33f6-11ea-9703-eea0cae3f0de