On one hand this could be seen as the usual cut and thrust of global politics and trade (in general). Countries do this sort of thing all the time to get an edge. Not always in the way the public thinks but often some subtle moving of chess pieces etc. threaten the drone imports to get leverage on the sugar beat exports.... ( Obviously it would not be electioneering Shirley no politician would stoop to that?
Note I am in the UK and we have trade deals and not (?) an election happening )
The other technical argument is that some systems send data back to another country. As noted above many systems do this, phones computers, IoT devices, cars drones etc. I have seen a live real time map showing all of a particular manufacturers vehicles en route in a city in a different country. I am reliabley informed that the vehiclas in the US also send bata back. So none of this is new.
The case in question being DJI Drones in the USA is amusing as most of the time we see Americans complaining abut the NFZ system DJI uses! I would have thought that the US Federal Authories would probalby want to fly , quite often, over their own property. Most of which would be in a NFZ. So rather ironically the Feds would hafe to ask the Chinese nicely for permission to fly over their own property. You have to see the funny side of that!
Whilst DJI might have over 80% of the global consumer market I woudl think that the US Federal Agencies , and come to that most other agencies for most of other governments, would require a drone that had marked all the no fly zones but that the operator could turn off. OR at least opperator for that agency could turn off certain NFZ IE you want them there so you are aware but you would then turn off the one you need but not the NFZ next to it which you should not be flying into. Not all agencies have the automatic right to enter all other agencies areas. Also you would want any flight data to go back to YOUR servers only.
Question is.... would you trust a foreign company to do you a drone with that sort of software? Would the US government trust DJI to do a modified version for the SW for them?
I think there is a market opportunity for some one to do a small UAV system for US government agencies. It would ould not be difficult.