Why is Congress interested in drones?

[Clipper707]

...they have not offered to my knowledge any concrete evidence that DJI is passing on critical information to the Chinese government..

I'm not sure how one would gather evidence of a Chinese company sharing data with the Chinese government.

It's irrelevant, anyway. Whether or not DJI plans to, or has already, shared data with the Chinese government, it is mandated to do so under Chinese law.

 

[Dmcvey]

Meanwhile NTSB using Phantom at bridge collapse. And since Oct 2023, 50,000 Chinese have walked across the southern border. That is 1000 operatives per state.

 

[Meta4]

Meanwhile NTSB using Phantom at bridge collapse. And since Oct 2023, 50,000 Chinese have walked across the southern border. That is 1000 operatives per state.

That sounds very dubious.
What's the source of this "information"?

 

[mavic3usa]

That sounds very dubious.
What's the source of this "information"?

Foxnews.com

 

[Skydreamer]

Foxnews.com

i know,i know……thats why iam sticking to “other “ media channels where everything is perfect,record jobs,lowest crime,no immigration issues at all ,you can walk in nycity with no fear at all …….phui foxnews,phui…..

 

[ericole]

Why is Congress interested in DJI drones? Because of Article 7 of the People's Republic of China's National Intelligence Law of 2017.


Article 7: All organizations and citizens shall support, assist, and cooperate with national intelligence efforts in accordance with law, and shall protect national intelligence work secrets they are aware of.

The State is to protect individuals and organizations that support, assist, and cooperate with national intelligence efforts.

In other words, the Communist Party of China (CPC or CCP) can demand data and information from any Chinese company, immigrant, or citizen.

I love my DJI drones and would hate to see them banned, but I see our current relationship with the PRC as a state of cold war. I've lived and worked in China and experienced the surveillance state. Maybe the Chinese don't need to know what kind of cheese you like on your ham sandwich, but they want to know anyway.

Those of us who are old enough to remember the Cold War (1947-1991) can't imagine our US government allowing the USSR access to US information back then, like we do the Chinese today.

中华人民共和国国家情报法 (2018修正)

National Intelligence Law of the P.R.C. (2017)

www.chinalawtranslate.com

You covered it all exactly. I’m amazed how ignorant most Americans are to this reality and how so many American companies are fully in bed with a country that is as much an enemy of ours as the USSR was.

 

[ericole]

Basically, politics, it's all part of the anti-Chinese thing. They think the Chinese are intercepting our videos and pictures I guess, and are looking at all of the not so interesting places I go to. Don't tell them about the computer cameras, trail cams, door bell cameras, dash cams, and all the others they will no doubt go after next. It's anti-Chinese and anti-drone at the same time, how much better can it get. Kinda reminds me of the anti-Japan thing back in the 70's, that worked out well.

Japan was not a military enemy. China most certainly is and much of what they do is to undermine our military might and. Hold theirs up. They are also buying real estate, farms, etc and can do things to hobble us from within our own country.

 

[ericole]

I don't like the situation any more than any other DJI users. I love the innovation, durability, and reliability of the DJI products that I have owned and the customer service demonstrated to me. We (the US), under the full support of the US business community, US citizens, and the US government allowed our self to fully immerse ourselves in the purchase and use of PRC subsidized products in our hobbies, business practices, and everyday life. Few thought of "what happens if this thing among China, Taiwan, and the US goes hot." Does anyone really think that DJI would not fowl up continued use of products in hand if this thing goes hot? Rather than rain insults and disrespect on me, how about truly thinking about the situation we find ourselves in, let's use something other than a me, me, me thought process, think about vulnerability for a moment. Too much emphasis on this website is about "spying" through use of the product rather than disrupting use of products that we have become reliant upon. Please give this some serious thought. I by no means am on board with legislation banning or blocking use of DJI products, I am merely asking this group to put on your war hats and think about things. I have been told many times I am still stuck in the cold war era. To that I respond, the cold war never ended, it merely expanded its theatres of operations.

I’ve noticed the same mentality, but it’s nationwide. What I do for a living makes me very aware and concerned with how integrated we are with our most dangerous enemy. But most Americans want their cheap junk off Amazon (much of which is a Chinese knock off of American-designed products, undercutting us economically), or iPhones, or whatever that they can only think about “how this affects me right now”. Of course we have very few adults in our nation’s capitol that think differently, so the behavior is modeled from th POTUS down. It’s an infuriating thing to watch as each new day the threat grows. The global economy would be a great thing, if everyone around the world had our values and form
Of government - they do not.

 

[ericole]

It's hard to see how your answer relates to the question that was asked in post #8.

>>>> what kind of information, other than that which we willingly supply when we purchase and activate our equipment, could the Chinese glean from our use of DJI drones?

Your use of a drone isn't going to reveal any military secrets or anything of any value for espionage.

People fly drones in all kinds of places, even illegal ones. Your drone connects back to your phone while you fly it. There are ways for phones to be hacked to send stuff off of them without you ever knowing it. It is a very likely scenario to use AI to scan massive amounts of info in real time and identify that which is of importance, ping the CCP and then those people take a strong interest in that particular DJI pilot. Then they can do boots on the ground surveillance to see what the pilot does in real life. From there they could even do face-to-face intel gathering by hooking up with that person in a bar, grocery store, etc with some hot Chinese babe.

This might sound far fetched to people who don’t work in this type of stuff, but I’ve seen exact cases happen like this. Not necessarily started with a drone’s data, but from what online computer data.

The bottom line is that if the electronics device with all kinds of location and mobile data capabilities come from China, it can be used as an intel gathering device.

 

[ericole]

Meanwhile NTSB using Phantom at bridge collapse. And since Oct 2023, 50,000 Chinese have walked across the southern border. That is 1000 operatives per state.

Well that last result is squarely on the current admin.

 

[DoomMeister]

Because they are the main consumer drone manufacturer and no government is happy that everyone can now peep everywhere with a <250g that you can't see nor hear while records you, your property or your dirty deeds.

Cameras have always been sort of a weapon in the good photojournalist hands, now give them wings, an effective range of up to 9Km, telephoto, a thermal camera, or the ability to easily enter a window and navigate indoors (Avata) and they are basically shitting on their pants, hence RID, hence the restrictions.

No one cared about quads, they were just another toy for RC enthusiast till someone started to mount webcams on them and transmit the image wirelessly.

Is there a DJI drone that I can use my phone or laptop to connect to the camera or aircraft wirelessly and receive information from it? As I understand the connection between the drone and controller, it is encrypted and no others can intercept it besides DJI Aeroscope or other anti drone technology.

If DJI is intercepting information from the Aeroscope installations that the government or owners of critical infrastructure are using, then that is another beast altogether and really has no cause for nonexistent issues with the aircraft themselves.

 

[DoomMeister]

Apparently AUVSI has some concerns about DJI and its 90% market share.

Whitepaper: AUVSI Partnership for Drone Competitiveness

https://www.auvsi.org/sites/default/files/AUVSI-Partnership-for-Drone-Competitiveness-White-Paper.pdf

Excerpt:

China’s dominance of the electronics supply chain, including drones, is harming U.S. national security interests, domestically and in Ukraine, and exposes the risk of relying on a strategic competitor for a key supply chain. The United States government ― the White House, DoD, DOJ, and Congress ― have all deemed Chinese-made drones as a whole, and DJI specifically, as a threat to national security. Accordingly, action must be taken for the U.S. drone market to compete on a level playing field and grow to meet the demand of the U.S. military and commercial industries.

WHO IS AUVSI?​

The Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI), the world's largest nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of uncrewed systems and robotics, represents corporations and professionals from more than 60 countries involved in industry, government and academia. AUVSI members work in the defense, civil and commercial markets.

And what does this have to do with private business or recreational use of these drones?

I really find it hard to fathom that a roof inspection, construction site of a private business, or my flights of scenic areas are a threat to National security.

Skydio is a great example of how inept a US drone company can be. Their initial offering was for recreational drones and they were overpriced for their capabilities, took way too long to manufacture, and then Skydio totally dropped them in favor of overpriced and undercapable commercial drones.

We have the technological capability and the educated workforce to undertake the challenge to build a competitively priced drone system, but over the past 25+ years more and more US corporations have moved the necessary manufacturing capability out of the US and our government let them get away with it. I do not see where they have they right to claim they have an unfair competitive platform.

As an example AC Sparkplugs used to be made in Flint, Michigan, but in the early 2000’s all of that business was sold and moved to China. The same thing goes for many other manufacturing businesses and processes.

 

[DARKSeifer]

Is there a DJI drone that I can use my phone or laptop to connect to the camera or aircraft wirelessly and receive information from it? As I understand the connection between the drone and controller, it is encrypted and no others can intercept it besides DJI Aeroscope or other anti drone technology.

If DJI is intercepting information from the Aeroscope installations that the government or owners of critical infrastructure are using, then that is another beast altogether and really has no cause for nonexistent issues with the aircraft themselves.

No one can intercept the video signal between a DJI drone and the controller, it's digitally encrypted, not even Aeroscope. You can intercept cheap wifi drones though (usually sold as toys).

The only pictures that get shared are the 3-4 low resolution pics that are present on every flight log.

Chinese can just enter Google Maps street view if they want to see something, they don't need a backdoor in their drones. They can also search on Instagram/Facebook/TikTok/whatever

On the other hand, everything is manufactured in China these days, why would China government want to cease relations with their main customers?

A part of the government wants to ban drones because they are flying remote controlled cameras, first they used security, but it failed because drones are the safest hobby around with 0 victims worldwide, then they gave the ability to every karen to track you down while flying (RID) and now they try to spread the paranoia, so everyone points you as a chinese spy.

Would anyone care if we start driving RC cars and boats around with a camera attached to them? Beware, chines spies with RC cars!... This is just nonsense, but people genuinely believe all that.

 

[Clipper707]

Chinese can just enter Google Maps street view if they want to see something, they don't need a backdoor in their drones. They can also search on Instagram/Facebook/TikTok/whatever

If that were true, the Chinese would believe the Key Bridge in Baltimore Harbor is still standing.